Helpful Score: 1
Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com
How do you stand out when there are nine other girls in your sophomore class that share the same name as you do - Luisa Perez? You don't. At least that's what Lu Perez has told herself.
However, after the first assembly of the school year at Colonel Dumpfield (excuse me, DUNFIELD) High School in Chicago, things will change for Lu. Principal Buzzkill (excuse me again, Alvarez) announces that the Mayor of Chicago is holding a Literacy Challenge. The prize - whichever school raises the most money for the cause will have a month off for winter break. Principal Alvarez decides that it will be a girl versus boy battle at Dunfield, and the team that shows the most initiative will receive three bonus days off over the spring holiday.
The battle lines have been drawn, and the school quickly goes to war trying to come up with the best fundraisers. But for Lu, the challenge is a bit different. Her English teacher, Mr. Sparling, has a proposition for her. The school newspaper wants to run anonymous articles chronicling the efforts of both sides. There will be an anonymous writer for the girls' team, and another one for the males.
What starts out as harmless banter between the two journalists dissing the opposing team's attempts at fundraising soon turns to a real battle of the sexes. Lu, still in the background, has noticed the popular girls taking up the causes written about in her anonymous Newshound articles. To make matters even more complicated, Lu is convinced that every boy that shows an interest in her is the guys' anonymous author.
Join Lu and the cast of characters that join forces to try and help Colonel Dunfield High win the precious winter break vacation. Lu has many romantic entanglements as well as drama at home to keep the reader interested until the surprise events at the Literacy Gala announcing the city's winner of the Literacy Challenge.
Ms. Collins & Ms. Rideout write a fun, youthful battle of the sexes. The articles between Newshound and Scoop keep the story entertaining and gives the reader an inside glimpse of what boys and girls are really thinking. The reader gets to see Lu grow in confidence and come out of the anonymity of being one of ten girls named Luisa Perez in her class.
How do you stand out when there are nine other girls in your sophomore class that share the same name as you do - Luisa Perez? You don't. At least that's what Lu Perez has told herself.
However, after the first assembly of the school year at Colonel Dumpfield (excuse me, DUNFIELD) High School in Chicago, things will change for Lu. Principal Buzzkill (excuse me again, Alvarez) announces that the Mayor of Chicago is holding a Literacy Challenge. The prize - whichever school raises the most money for the cause will have a month off for winter break. Principal Alvarez decides that it will be a girl versus boy battle at Dunfield, and the team that shows the most initiative will receive three bonus days off over the spring holiday.
The battle lines have been drawn, and the school quickly goes to war trying to come up with the best fundraisers. But for Lu, the challenge is a bit different. Her English teacher, Mr. Sparling, has a proposition for her. The school newspaper wants to run anonymous articles chronicling the efforts of both sides. There will be an anonymous writer for the girls' team, and another one for the males.
What starts out as harmless banter between the two journalists dissing the opposing team's attempts at fundraising soon turns to a real battle of the sexes. Lu, still in the background, has noticed the popular girls taking up the causes written about in her anonymous Newshound articles. To make matters even more complicated, Lu is convinced that every boy that shows an interest in her is the guys' anonymous author.
Join Lu and the cast of characters that join forces to try and help Colonel Dunfield High win the precious winter break vacation. Lu has many romantic entanglements as well as drama at home to keep the reader interested until the surprise events at the Literacy Gala announcing the city's winner of the Literacy Challenge.
Ms. Collins & Ms. Rideout write a fun, youthful battle of the sexes. The articles between Newshound and Scoop keep the story entertaining and gives the reader an inside glimpse of what boys and girls are really thinking. The reader gets to see Lu grow in confidence and come out of the anonymity of being one of ten girls named Luisa Perez in her class.
Luisa Perez and her best friends have mastered the art of not participating in their high school, Dunfield aka "Dumpfield's" extracurricular activities. That is, until sophomore year brings a literacy challenge to the city, girls against boys. The prize for which group raises the most money for literacy awareness? Extra weeks of winter break.
Lu is snagged to write an anonymous column about the fundraising effort, exchanging words with a male counterpart. The debate between "Scoop" and "Newshound" becomes heated and turns into a battle of the sexes, and their column gains more popularity as a result.
However, heated exchanges occur in other aspects of Lu's life, too. Her family life is not the best, what with her overbearing older sister constantly talking her down, and having to fend off the raucous male factory workers at the diner where she works. But there are plenty of opportunities for possible romance--sometimes in the most unexpected of places...unless the effects of the literacy column destroy any chance that Lu has at love.
GIRL V. BOY was a pleasant, if predictable, read. I have trouble describing how I felt about it, and yet when I was reading it I couldn't put it down. Lu and her friends and classmates are fun to read about. The ending was predictable, yes, but the beginning and middle were not as predictable, thus sparing me from reading something painfully boring. That being said, GIRL V. BOY was definitely an enjoyable read that will appeal to high school girls looking for a hearty dose of rapid-fire battle-of-the-sexes dialogue and a solid romance.
Lu is snagged to write an anonymous column about the fundraising effort, exchanging words with a male counterpart. The debate between "Scoop" and "Newshound" becomes heated and turns into a battle of the sexes, and their column gains more popularity as a result.
However, heated exchanges occur in other aspects of Lu's life, too. Her family life is not the best, what with her overbearing older sister constantly talking her down, and having to fend off the raucous male factory workers at the diner where she works. But there are plenty of opportunities for possible romance--sometimes in the most unexpected of places...unless the effects of the literacy column destroy any chance that Lu has at love.
GIRL V. BOY was a pleasant, if predictable, read. I have trouble describing how I felt about it, and yet when I was reading it I couldn't put it down. Lu and her friends and classmates are fun to read about. The ending was predictable, yes, but the beginning and middle were not as predictable, thus sparing me from reading something painfully boring. That being said, GIRL V. BOY was definitely an enjoyable read that will appeal to high school girls looking for a hearty dose of rapid-fire battle-of-the-sexes dialogue and a solid romance.
