A wonderful teenage book
359119
I was just remembering this book.... I read it as a young teen and was so smitten by it that I wrote to a hotel at Lake Geneva to see what I had to do to get a summer job there!  I remembered the name and looked online here, was amazed to see that it is still as pricey as it is.  It must be well-liked!  I would like for my 14 year old granddaughter to read it too.
1987696
First, this is a very Unique and funny book.
Second, This is NOT a young adult book. Yes it is a book that has teenage main charter but it has none of the teenage angst or high school drama bulls*** of books in the young-adult genre. That being said it is still safe to read for people of all ages and genders.
1278176
This book deals wonderfully with the problems that teenagers go through in discovering themselves and moving into the adults they will become. The support the main characters give each other in amazing considering the differing worlds they come from in their school community. I read YA regularly as I teach this age level. It's a rare YA book that can hold my attention from start to finish, and this is just one of those books! This should be read by teens and adults alike. It would be a wonderful parent/teen book that could be used to open up discussions about marginalized kids at school, as well as for parent recollections of their own memories from school.
312715
This is a great book for teenagers to read over the summer. It is a quick read and very interesting. Every character gets their own chapter with their own point of view. Recommended for all ages.
4793985
I would recommend this book mostly to teenagers, but I know several adults that would enjoy it, as well.  I really loved Vere and her blushing cheeks, and Jenna was hilarious as well.  Very well written, quick enjoyable read
4861433
But, even at 28 it's a beautiful touching book, with a strong philosophical underline theme.
This is a perfect book for your sophisticated teenager. So many good books, and interesting people are being referred to in this book, that consider intellect a positive thing, it might serve as an elementary reading list for a young adult.
1027613
I know "Twelve" may resemble may other books, most notably "Less Than Zero" and "Bright Lights Big City."
But does that really matter?
No.  It is still a very good book with believable, if maybe a bit stereptypical (Hey, the kid is 18.  Everything was slightly stereotyped when I was that age.  You haven't had a chance to experience life yet.)
I won't rehash the plot, you can get it from the above editorial reviews, but I will say that the story is an interesting mix of teenage angst and a slice-of-life shot of the social activities of today's high school age youth.
Recommended
4947780
Absolutely enjoyable,a really good read and not only for teens.
1270271
With Cecily, Zulkey does an excellent job of capturing the awe, aimlessness, fears, and social anxiety of being a teenager. Even though she doesn't want to, Cecily can't help admiring her older siblings' lives, their independence, even as she's uncertain whether she will ever be able to fully take steps towards her own. She fights with her father, about nothing and everything, but knows she will miss him.

An Off Year is about feeling out of place, at college, and at home, and while that feeling isn't specific to being a teenager, there is a profound way that for teenagers, especially as they embark on being adults, it seems overwhelming. Cecily is discovering "the real world" and Zulkey doesn't paint it as all powerful or all demoralizing. Cecily has to learn for herself, along with some mentors, crushes, friends and former friends, what it means to be herself. Most of all, she has to learn to trust that she will find her path.

I'd recommend this to anyone in high school or college, especially, who feels out of place, a little lost. This is not an action-packed book racing from one wild scene to the next. It offers a slow reveal, an internal dialogue Cecily has with herself, which spares no one--her parents, her friends, her counselors. There are times when most readers will find Cecily's worldview a little harsh, a little bitter, and I had to rein myself in from judging her too harshly because she is, after all, a teenager and that is part and parcel of life for most teens. Scratch that surface of jadedness and Cecily is open to wonder, though sometimes it takes unexpected forms, like her brother's girlfriend Angie, who she tries to hate, but can't. Cecily is a keen observer of those around her, in part because she's afraid to really ask herself what she wants, though when she finally does, she starts to see that while she may be different from her peers, she's not all that different. Zulkey ends the book on a hopeful note, and has created a book that doesn't lionize college as "the best years of your life." I liked that Cecily didn't do something cliched during her year off, that she spent a lot of it "wasting" time that it turns out wasn't wasted at all. This book doesn't have a sappy ending, but it does have a happy one, though easily could have had a happy ending even if Cecily hadn't made the decision she does, which, I think, is part of the lesson of An Off Year; that we all have to find our own path, as winding and meandering as it may be, and that nobody can tell us exactly what that path will be.
746346
I think this book is an awsome book for a teenager and for a kid to read. This book has alot of surprises.but there are some similarities in the book and the show Sailor Moon. But anyway. I realy enjoy this book because its has things about dating,school,and other thing that young peopel do.but all and all its a very enjoyable book like the others.
1874094
This is a worthwhile book and one that I think many teens would enjoy. The author creates vivid, realistic characters and the issues they face I think will resonate with many teens.
3100057
This book was a joy to read. It is easy to follow and has many interesting details. I would say the only thing that is odd about this selection is the format it is written; which is a diary type. The one good thing about that is the fact that it keeps the book moving at a fast pace with the shorter entries. The basic theme of the book is about how high school life can be in the modern day. The author himself is a new author and i believe that his writting skills can and will develope more. But all in all it was a great book that i do recommend to anybody, especially teenagers.
267863
I loved this book. It was one of the best teen books that I have ever read. Okay ther were some flaws to this book, but the good outweighs the bad.
I can relate to Jessie, I'm fifteen and I have ADD. Though, there are differences between ADHD and ADD, there is so many simalarities. Nancy Rue made this tale of a fifteen year old girl with ADHD very realistic.
There is flaws though, all the Nancy Rue stories I have read have been for girl of ages 12 and under and you can tell in some areas that the character was more of an eight year old than a fifteen year old.
Despite that though, this book rocks and I recommend it to any Christian teen an even for those tweens. I'm looking forward to reading more in the Real Life series.
2175240
I chose this book as my Kindle First Book for November and was immediately swept away with it. I originally chose this book for my teenage daughter, but I soon found myself unable to put it down. This book took me back to my own teenage years and the struggles that many teenagers go through. I was so happy that I chose this book and I sincerely hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.
4937659
Susie Day's SERAFINA67 *URGENTLY REQUIRES LIFE* is a hilarious and intimate peek about being a British teenage girl, which besides the weird slang is strikingly familiar to being an American teen.  It takes place over approximately four months and is entirely composed of Serafina67's blog and accompanying comments.  (Note: There is a glossary in the back with definitions to weird English slang.  Don't be like me and discover it after you've finished reading.)

Serafina67 is a fifteen-year-old girl who lives with her mum and visits her dad on weekends.  She has a witch under her skin that makes her act terribly sometimes and has made a resolution to be accomplished on April 22nd (blog starts on Christmas) to be happy.  On the way, she is helped and hindered by her real and blog friends, Crazy Pete the therapist, her parents (and their significant others), and, of course, her blog.

It's hard to describe Serafina, because she's very full-fleshed and complicated.  She can be bouncing off the walls and wonderfully excited about her VTN (Very Thrilling Novel) at the beginning of one day and feel fat, miserable, and prone to chocolate by mid-afternoon.  And even when she's at her lowest, she finds humorous ways to unload it onto her readers.  She often summarizes horrible events with hilarious but appropriate imaginary dialogue, but one of my favorite moments is when she doesn't feel up to posting and hence composes a blog post entirely in haiku and her friends comment accordingly.

This book reminded me a lot of Stephen Chbosky's epistolary novel THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER, not only because of its content, but also because it feels almost interactive.  As I read the posts and the character's reactions, I realized that the format was really cool because it's a mixture between first person (Serafina) and third person (various  comments).  It was also a neat blur between the privacy of a journal and the public-ness of the Internet.  One of Serafina's friends, Georgia Darkly, finds her by Googling "mermaid" and "anorexia."

This is a really fun read and the author, Susie Day, touches on a lot of issues -- I won't call them teen issues, because teens don't have a monopoly on being unhappy even though it sometimes feels like it -- without getting motherly, moral, or "I've-been-there" about it.  And I swear that you don't even have to be(en) a teen girl to enjoy it.  This book applies to anyone who has ever thought the Parents are crazy, said something they shouldn't have, or just hates their life.

Reviewed by:  Natalie Tsang
1167499
This book is a wonderful find especially for the teen girls growing up in today's society.  This book covers it all from what is sex to reading what the guy is feeling at the same time the girl is.  I really liked that this book was not written in a language that was above today's teen girls or below them.  It was written in a very modern language that I would not mind my own 16 year old daughter reading.
1463931
This book was recommended to me by a friend and I am glad that she recommended it.

Eleanor is an awkward teenage girl that lives with her mom and her stepfather who is a drunk and is pretty abusive to Eleanor's mom and sometimes even Eleanor.  Eleanor lives a somewhat sheltered life until she meets Park.

Park is an awkward teenage boy that loves comics and music.  His home life is pretty much the opposite of Eleanor's.

After meeting Eleanor on the school bus, the two strike up awkward conversations and eventually, the two teenagers eventually become more than just friends.

I really enjoyed this book not just because of the main storyline, but because of the various '80s references. I can totally identify with the way these characters  were in this book, because I was also a teenager that didn't really fit into a group or clique just like these two.

I look forward to reading more by this author.