Rating: 
Summary: An Honest and Quietly Amazing Novel
Review: At some point even the most extreme and horrific events, so raw and immediate now, become history. Novels, as opposed to other art forms or nonfiction, are a good gauge of this moment --- the moment when we can examine an event and begin to understand its aftermath and consequences.As evidenced by Joyce Maynard's latest novel THE USUAL RULES, 9/11 is now one of these events that characters (read: we) have survived and built a life after and in response to. This novel is not about 9/11, but that is the starting point --- the catalyst for action and change. On Tuesday, September 11th in Brooklyn, thirteen-year-old Wendy sits in class just as she would any other weekday. She left home slightly angry at her mother and a little annoyed at her stepfather, which seemed typical to Wendy these days. But when the earth beneath New York City shook and debris started raining from the sky, Wendy's perspective changed. Wendy's mother, a former dancer, worked in one of the World Trade Center towers. After the attack, Wendy, her stepfather Josh and her little brother Louie hold on to hope that she has survived. As the days go by, it becomes apparent that Wendy's mother is dead. When the biological father she hardly knows (but always dreams about) shows up, Wendy decides to go to California with him. She hopes that life with her father will help her heal and allow her to create a new life for herself. But she doesn't realize how difficult it will be to start again and leave Josh and Louie behind. In California Wendy does create a new life, but one based almost solely on shedding the traces of her past. She stops going to school and spends her time at a local bookstore reading the classics suggested by the friendly owner. She also befriends a teenage mother struggling to raise her son alone. To each she tells a different story of who she is and where she comes from. And she tries to build a family with her father and his girlfriend, who have family issues of their own. Much of Wendy's California life is concerned with defining family, and ultimately she yearns for the one she left behind in New York. THE USUAL RULES, as much as it is about healing and growing up, is about family. Yes, Wendy must mourn the loss of her mother, and Maynard captures her loss with a stinging accuracy. But the real story is that of Wendy gaining strength and deciding what she will do with her mother's memory, who she will become, and who she will include in her redefined understanding of family. Maynard's novel begins with an interesting prologue --- the story of Wendy's name. The prologue shares with the reader the family mythology Wendy's mother created for her. It also points to fairy tales fractured (Wendy is named for the nurturing character in Peter Pan) and how, while we may know who our parents hoped we'd be, we must on some level decide for ourselves who we will become. THE USUAL RULES is a tearjerker without being saccharine. It is written with an understated grace and clarity. The characters come across as real; sometimes frustrating, always likable. Maynard's stilted style is slightly unconventional and can be jarring at first. The flow of the novel comes from the action and emotion, for the most part, and not from the language. Yet it is easy to become lost in Wendy's story, and Maynard's unique voice becomes more comfortable to read as the novel progresses. Maynard's novel is many things --- a coming-of-age story, a story about discovering family, a story about healing --- all set against a national tragedy of singular proportion. Rarely do authors capture so well the voice, mind and heart of a thirteen-year-old girl, but Maynard does so with ease. THE USUAL RULES is an honest and quietly amazing novel. --- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman
Rating: 
Summary: Simply the best!!
Review: I am 15 years old and I found this book to be so great! There was no part of this book that I didn't enjoy reading. I think that any teenager capable of understanding in depth circumstances and the tragedies and heartache that life thrusts at people would certainly love reading this book. Read this book and immediately feel like you are involved in the story through the happy and sad, the laughter and the tears. ...I highly recommend this book!!
Rating:
Summary: Pleasantly Surprised
Review: I bought this book because I had read and enjoyed previous works by Ms. Maynard. When I first heard that the story was about the September Eleventh disaster I hesitated. I wasn't sure how much more I wanted to know about that subject. However, when I got into the book, I realized that that horrible day was merely a bit player (not to mention an excellent metaphor for the 'emotional disaster' that preadolescence is for all young females) in a warm and wonderful story about a young girl coming of age without the aid of 'the usual rules'. My heart ached for the travails Wendy had to go through but warmed at her ability to survive and even thrive in the face of them. The characters were so well drawn and fully dimensional that I felt that I knew them, or at least someone like them. This would be a great book club choice or a wonderful piece to be read by a mother and daughter together so as to better understand the issues facing them both. I ordered a second copy to give my mom for mother's day. Hope you all enjoy this lovely novel as much as I did.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Put.....A wonderful, beautiful book!!!
Review: I just finished "The Usual Rules" and found myself thinking that I had to go out and find a book just like, or very similar to this one. My next thought, though was that there aren't too many books out there that are as perfectly pitched as this one. Every page is meant to be savored. I was afraid to read this book because even though I live thousands of miles away from New York City, and no one I knew died during the 9/11 attacks, I thought it was unfair to fictionalize those events...(and maybe, in a way trivialize them.) Boy, was I wrong. I applaud Ms. Maymard for writing a book that will help people deal with all sorts of sadness and loss in their lives. I thought it brilliant the way the story was told from the point of view of 13-year old, Wendy. I loved the character of Josh, too. I wish we all could have a father like him. Pay close attention to the letter Josh writes to Wendy while she's in New York. I started crying then and didn't stop until the end of the book, which was about 150 pages later. The way Wendy is able to be so, so strong in the face of such hearbreak is amazing to me. Her little brother Louie, is lucky to have her for a big sister. This book will stay with me for a long, long time.
Rating:
Summary: Best book of my generation
Review: I read this book for english and I thought that is was the best book that we read. I thought that the entire thing would be based upon before 9/11. The that Joyce Maynard goes into depth about the charachters is very amazing and I liked how she did that. She should how Wendy was still growing up in New York city but than she goes to California and she grows up she has a totally new prospective on the world that she had known all of her live. Joyce Maynard is the best writer this book should go up for a noble prize.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Story of Healing and Hope
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully written story of hope and healing. Everyone experiences tragedy, suffering and pain...it's how we handle it that determines the strength of our spirits....and this story wonderfully illustrates the resiliency of the human spirit, especially in children and teens. It truly deserves more than five stars!!!
Rating:
Summary: september 11
Review: I was hesitant to dig up the sorrow and pain of 9/11 so this book was bought but shelved for a while...I'm so glad I finally opened it up! This is an incredible tale of healing, not just for Wendy, but for everyone she meets. As a teacher of middle schoolers, I think her voice is very believable and one that I plan to share with my students who love to read. I found this story engrossing to a point where I would turn the light back on to read a little more. The only thing I disliked at first but got used to were her lack of quotation marks for dialogue...then again, more realism...it reads like a note I'd confiscate from students! Very real, no perfectly happy endings, but great characters and story. Read it and pass it on!
Rating:
Summary: The Usual Rules
Review: Maynard's story, told through the eyes of 13 year-old Wendy, gives readers a colorable glimpse of post 9/11 grief. I found myself wondering about and praying for the real families who were left behind after that horrific tragedy! An original, thought-provoking page turner to say the least.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant and Hopeful
Review: Thirteen year old Wendy is a typical young Brooklyn teen who's anxious to grow up. She lives with her vivacious mom, who is an executive secretary by day, but a dancer at heart, her jazz musician stepfather, and Louie, her endearing four year old brother. Wendy's mother goes to work on September 11, and never comes home. After weeks of unbearable grief and sadness, Wendy's biological father shows up from Davis, California and suggests she return home with him. Wendy accepts, in part to escape the daily reminders of her mothers' death, and to learn about her father, now her only living biological parent. With none of the "usual rules" imposed by her dad, Wendy skips school and experiments with aliases as she meets colorful new characters. There is Carolyn, her dad's cactus-loving girlfriend, Alan, the benevolent bookstore owner and father of an autistic son, Violet, an unwed teenage mom, and Todd, a skater runaway with a big heart. Wendy creates a new life on her own terms, and discovers who really cares for her. She keeps in touch with her step dad and Louie, and returns to visit - or maybe to stay - the next spring.
This is a story of excruciating grief and loss, which Maynard treats in a palpably realistic manner, despite the opportunistic use of 9/11 as the premise. Wendy comes to realize that a person doesn't die in one day, but gradually, like "a balloon that kept rising until you couldn't see it anymore." It is also a story about redefining family in new ways. Written in third person, using lengthy flashbacks, Maynard does not use quotations, making the dialog difficult to follow at times. The book is long at 390 pages, and will likely lose some YA readers in the first 60 pages, which are tedious. However, Maynard has written a poignant story about a child's loss, and has written about the grief process with unusual sensitivity and clarity. We watch Wendy and her family turn the corner between "feeling like you can't go on anymore, and realizing that you will." There is a pallet of interesting and credible characters and the contrast between life in NY and California adds dimension to the story.
Rating:
Summary: Poignant and Hopeful
Review: Thirteen year old Wendy is a typical young Brooklyn teen who's anxious to grow up. She lives with her vivacious mom, who is an executive secretary by day, but a dancer at heart, her jazz musician stepfather, and Louie, her endearing four year old brother. Wendy's mother goes to work on September 11, and never comes home. After weeks of unbearable grief and sadness, Wendy's biological father shows up from Davis, California and suggests she return home with him. Wendy accepts, in part to escape the daily reminders of her mothers' death, and to learn about her father, now her only living biological parent. With none of the "usual rules" imposed by her dad, Wendy skips school and experiments with aliases as she meets colorful new characters. There is Carolyn, her dad's cactus-loving girlfriend, Alan, the benevolent bookstore owner and father of an autistic son, Violet, an unwed teenage mom, and Todd, a skater runaway with a big heart. Wendy creates a new life on her own terms, and discovers who really cares for her. She keeps in touch with her step dad and Louie, and returns to visit - or maybe to stay - the next spring.
This is a story of excruciating grief and loss, which Maynard treats in a palpably realistic manner, despite the opportunistic use of 9/11 as the premise. Wendy comes to realize that a person doesn't die in one day, but gradually, like "a balloon that kept rising until you couldn't see it anymore." It is also a story about redefining family in new ways. Written in third person, using lengthy flashbacks, Maynard does not use quotations, making the dialog difficult to follow at times. The book is long at 390 pages, and will likely lose some YA readers in the first 60 pages, which are tedious. However, Maynard has written a poignant story about a child's loss, and has written about the grief process with unusual sensitivity and clarity. We watch Wendy and her family turn the corner between "feeling like you can't go on anymore, and realizing that you will." There is a pallet of interesting and credible characters and the contrast between life in NY and California adds dimension to the story.
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