Rating: 
Summary: A surprising find
Review: All Alone in the Universe is for anyone who remembers middle school as torture, often at the hands of peers. It's also for people living through middle school right now. (To whom I say: survive. Things will get better.) The basic story line isn't much. Debbie and Maureen have been best friends since third grade, and now Maureen is moving on, leaving Debbie behind - and alone. Debbie records this with a great deal of insight and wisdom, and almost painful honesty. She also throws in nifty illustrations and a lot of small vignettes, some of which are very funny, all of which demonstrate the way people, sometimes strangers, can change your life. Debbie is helped through her crisis by lots of unexpected people - a gardener and his employer, her English teacher, a girl her own age even more outcast than herself - and learns that some small acts of kindness can have an effect out of proportion to the effort required to make them. The message is twofold: you can live through change and loss. And we can all help others sometimes - and we all need help sometimes. This is a small book with surprising depth. Buy it for the middle-schooler in your life, but be sure to read it for yourself, too.
Rating:
Summary: A surprising find
Review: All Alone in the Universe is for anyone who remembers middle school as torture, often at the hands of peers. It's also for people living through middle school right now. (To whom I say: survive. Things will get better.) The basic story line isn't much. Debbie and Maureen have been best friends since third grade, and now Maureen is moving on, leaving Debbie behind - and alone. Debbie records this with a great deal of insight and wisdom, and almost painful honesty. She also throws in nifty illustrations and a lot of small vignettes, some of which are very funny, all of which demonstrate the way people, sometimes strangers, can change your life. Debbie is helped through her crisis by lots of unexpected people - a gardener and his employer, her English teacher, a girl her own age even more outcast than herself - and learns that some small acts of kindness can have an effect out of proportion to the effort required to make them. The message is twofold: you can live through change and loss. And we can all help others sometimes - and we all need help sometimes. This is a small book with surprising depth. Buy it for the middle-schooler in your life, but be sure to read it for yourself, too.
Rating: 
Summary: All Alone in the Universe
Review: All Alone in the Universe was a book almost everyone could relate to because it could really happen. It is a realistic fiction story about a girl who loses her best friend to another best. When Debbie, the friendless girl, is left in the dust, she realizes how lucky she was to have friends. It is about how she has to start over and finds out ther ARE other peole who care about her. While she is going through this, Debbie feel all alone in the universe, hence the title. I would recommend this book to kids who are having troubles. It really helps people realize how lucky they really are and realize that it isn't the end of the world have an obstacle gets in the way. It shows how to overcome that obstacle, even if it's not easy. It was a good book and once I started I couldn't stop. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, because it was an easy read. To find out the end of this book, read it for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for Middleschoolers
Review: As a middle school teacher teaching at an all-girls school, I found this book incredible. Adolescence is a time of turmoil within self and friendships, and this book is very realistic. I see friendships crumble almost daily. I see the girls who get hurt and the girls who do the hurting. This book may just make the breaking up of a friendship easier to bear. It's so good, I plan to read it to my summer school class.
Rating:
Summary: This is an exceptional book
Review: I am an Orthodox Jew with a large family, and I took this book out for my 11 year old daughter, and I started reading it and couldn't put it down. Then my wife read it and couldn't put it down. There's a lot of wisdom here. It reminded me a bit of the introspection of Catcher in the Rye, but it was brighter and more current, of course. It's about relationships, how we can see each other forming a network of mutual helpers. I and my wife loved it.
Rating:
Summary: This is an exceptional book
Review: I am an Orthodox Jew with a large family, and I took this book out for my 11 year old daughter, and I started reading it and couldn't put it down. Then my wife read it and couldn't put it down. There's a lot of wisdom here. It reminded me a bit of the introspection of Catcher in the Rye, but it was brighter and more current, of course. It's about relationships, how we can see each other forming a network of mutual helpers. I and my wife loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: Do I havea friend in the World???
Review: I thought that this book was a bit confusing because the author would switch the topic every once in a while. If you like a book that makes you have to follow the topic then this is the book for you! This book is about a girl named Debbie and her best friend Marreen. They would do everything together until Debbie and her family went on vacation. Marreen went and hung out with a girl that also lived in the neighborhood. Debbie began to fell more and more discluted. She felt as if she had no friends until she noticed a girl named Peggy that was in her class that lived near her with the same interest.....
Rating: 
Summary: Too easy to relate to.
Review: My sister and I listened to this story on the way up to Minnesota, and we both agreed that it was a nice change of pace for "lost-friendship-teen-angst" type stories. For one thing, the main character had a good home life. Debbie was not dealing with drugs, abusive parents, divorce or any of the other calamaties that can happen in life. For another, Debbie's emotions seemed real--not forced or contrived. She was allowed to dislike the other girl in the triangle. I did find the writing to be a bit overly descriptive (though her descriptions were fun), and because we were listening, the chapter breaks were a little disconcerting. But Hope Davis did a marvelous job reading, and anyone looking for realistic teen fiction, try this one!
Rating:
Summary: An identifiable story
Review: My sister and I listened to this story on the way up to Minnesota, and we both agreed that it was a nice change of pace for "lost-friendship-teen-angst" type stories. For one thing, the main character had a good home life. Debbie was not dealing with drugs, abusive parents, divorce or any of the other calamaties that can happen in life. For another, Debbie's emotions seemed real--not forced or contrived. She was allowed to dislike the other girl in the triangle. I did find the writing to be a bit overly descriptive (though her descriptions were fun), and because we were listening, the chapter breaks were a little disconcerting. But Hope Davis did a marvelous job reading, and anyone looking for realistic teen fiction, try this one!
Rating:
Summary: Too easy to relate to.
Review: The first reviewer was right. This bok was far too easy to relate to. Because it could easily happen. And it did happen to me. I didn't like this book because it struck too close to home and it hurt me to read it. But that's just me. You might like it.
| 
