How I Survived Being a Girl

Rating:
Summary: Carolyn herself is smart and fairly likable,
Review: Being a girl is no fun. Girls have to wear dresses to school and can't do entertaining things, like have their own paper route. Being a girl means you're not supposed to climb on the roof, or dig foxholes in the yard, or spy on the neighbors. And you're definitely not supposed to like your new baby sister, or have a crush on a friend who's normally nothing more than a stickball buddy.

Right?

Twelve-year-old Carolyn has never thought of herself as a girl. She prefers to keep her hair short and wants nothing to do with dresses, ruffles, or anything that remotely could be considered "girly." But when her baby sister Nancy is born, Carolyn's thoughts toward girls begin to change as she sees that she's not alone in her family anymore.

Lots of gross descriptions and hilarious adventures keep this book moving, though in the end Carolyn disappointingly fails to balance her tomboy nature with the "girly" feelings she experiences. Furthermore, the lack of a timeline is a source of confusion. Though the reader never knows for certain the year in which the book takes place, it seems as if many of Carolyn's anecdotes, such as having to wear dresses to school that aren't mentioned as part of a uniform or not being able to run her own paper route, are problems not usually faced by girls today.

Carolyn herself is smart and fairly likable, but not as inspiring as van Draanen's other major girl hero, Sammy Keyes.

--- Reviewed by Carlie Kraft Webber

Rating:
Summary: How I survived being a girl
Review: Do you hate being picked on by an older borther or sister? Well, in my non-fiction narrative, Carolyn hated it. Carolyn is a teen who lives in a small neighborhood, she spends her day spying on other peopple. She spent her day spying on other people, because she is not a girly-girl. In fact, she is quite adventurous and very curious. When her mother is having a baby, she cuts back on the spying, and more on the thought of her new sibling.

This book was quite a page-turner, because it was detailed on every subject from spying, to her new sibling, and mostly her life. I would recommend it to pre-teen and older girls/women. For pre-teens, it would suit their life better. For older women, it would reflect back to how they might have been in their younger years. It is easy to connect to the character, if you are not such a girly-gril. I enjoyed this style of writing, because it was easy to read and wasn't confusing. You can see it in you mind while reading.
EX. We went around the pool over to where Freeko was. Well, it's not a pool like you're used to thinking of. It's got water in it, but you wouldn't want to swim in it unless you were a snake or a frog or something that liked slime.
The end of each chapter kept you reading, you wanted to know what happened to Carolyn. You would ask if she got in trouble or not.
EX. ....And I just stared at my pillowcase until I did what any sensible girl would do.
CRY.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book of all time!
Review: I loved this book since I was in the fourth grade (I was 10 at that time) and picked it up and got it for Literature Circles. The thing I like about it is that Carolyn, the main character, is a tomboy and by being it written in first person, you can see what it's like being in her shoes. It's the kind of book any 12-year-old girl can relate to; and make you not feel alone, and it's great for any 8-12 year old girl to read who's curious and confused about the world around her.

STORYLINE:

This book is about a preteen-aged girl named Carolyn, who wishes she was a boy. I guess you could say she's a tomboy because she has 2 brothers: Allen and Jack, she's surrounded by mostly boys, keeps her hair short, hates dresses, and dresses in boy's clothes every chance she gets. She loves to spy, ditch her brothers and hang out with neighborhood friends, such as Charlie, her best guy friend. She goes on fun adventures like digging underground holes, biking with her brothers, and climbing on neighbors' roof and through rocks down and shining a flashlight down their roof. All Carolyn wants is more friends, a dog, and to get away from all her brothers. When fall comes, she has to go to school, and gets in a lot of trouble, because she calls her teacher names like 'Dragon Lady.' She hates this girly-girl named Helen Lison, who always wears Mary Janes and dresses. But then, when Carolyn is really feeling down, her mother becomes pregnant with a new kid. Carolyn then gets her hopes up and wishes that it is going to be a girl. It comes out to a stunning ending: she cries when she find out it's a girl, she gets tamed a bit and stops wishing she were a boy.

MAIN CHARACTERS:
Carolyn's family is made up of Carolyn (of course), her brothers Jack and Allen, and her Mom and Dad, and a dog that they get towards of the Middle of the book, whom they name Kocory. At the End of the book, her mother has a baby, who they all named Nancy.

Her friends are: Charlie + Will, her next-door neighbors, and her brothers,
Jack and Allen.

WHERE IT TAKES PLACE (AND TIME): A little more than half of this book takes place in the Summer, but some of it takes place in the Fall too, because that's when Carolyn goes back to school.

To make this book more helpful, there should be a little map drawn inside to show the neighborhood, which can be found behind the contents (in my book; if you bought the version first published in 1997).

Well, that was a review on my favorite book! I hope you thought it was helpful. So, would you please click 'yes' or 'no'? :)

Rating:
Summary: IT'S FABULOUS!!!!!!
Review: If you're a girl with brothers,read it. It's SO great,that it's really hard to describe!All I can say is:if your a girl and you have brothers then you will WANT to read it! I would know, I have two older ones and two younger ones! NO SISTERS!!!!!! }: {: {my life is boring!)

Rating:
Summary: Girls, Girls, Girls
Review: This book, How I Survived Being a Girl by wendelin Van Draanen shows girls about tomboys and extremely "prissy" girls. (If you like to read about tomboys, every girl's day-to-day life, sibling rivalry, and troublesome activitites then you should read this book because you would love it. In this book there are 19 chapters, all with creative titles. This book tells about carolyn an 11 year old girl, who is a tomboy. Her family and her neighbors understand and accept her tomboy-ish life. On a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being the best; it deserves a 5 because of its unstoppable humor. I am a tomboy type girl. Read it yourself and judge it. "You can't tell a book by its cover."

Rating:
Summary: a very funny book
Review: This is Wendelin Van Draanen's first book, the book before all the mysteries with Sammy Keyes. This book is about a girl named Carolyn who wants to be a boy. The story is set back in time just far enough that the gender-based limitations and restrictions are funny and not threatening. How Carolyn confronts her problems and what she learns about herself are, however, relevant to the problems of 8 to 12-year-old girls today. Whether a girl is prevented from having a paper route because the publication only hires boys (as Carolyn is) or because neighborhoods have become unsafe for a young girl riding alone on her bike (as a girl in an urban area is), the girl doesn't get that paper route. Either situation might make a girl think she wants to be a boy while what she really wants is to be allowed to act like one.

"How I Survived Being A Girl" isn't a preachy book though. Ms. Van Draanen remembers what it was like to be a girl and describes it very accurately. Bad judgement (digging foxholes in a neighbor's yard), painful alienation (boys ignoring girls or some other girl being the first to have a boy friend), prissy girls (dresses for school with no shorts underneath), and gross food scenes ("see the bread mixing with the peanut butter and squishing into the milk with little streaks of grape jelly pushing through") are all in the book. The story's heroine Carolyn delights in the person she is and figures out ways to do almost everything she wants.

I believe this book would be more enjoyable for girls on the younger side of the suggested reading age. Twelve-year-old girls are ready for "Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging" or almost ready for "The Real Rules for Girls", but those are for other reviews. As for boys, I'm not sure any one will read past the first page.

Linda Murphy
Children's Editor of the Writers Hood


Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: This was a very good book. She is just like me but has way more fun.
Wedelin Van Draanen should make another book about carolyn.
and like call it "being a girl isnt so bad" or "i thought beign a girl wanst so bad until now"