Someone Like You
Dessen, Sarah
ISBN-13 9780670877782
ISBN-10 0670877786
Publisher: Penguin Group, 1998
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Reading Level: 820 Lexile
Interest Age: 15-19
Reader's Annotation:
One is outgoing and one is quiet. What happens when 11th grade hits and everything turns upside down?
Plot Summary:
Halley and Scarlett are the best of friends. They have been inseparable for years and yet they are very different people. Scarlett is the popular friend who is always doing something new and different. Halley is very quiet and relies on Scarlett to pull her out of her shell and socialize. As the story moves forward, and the girls head into eleventh grade and start their year. Suddenly, Scarlett's boyfriend is involved in a horrible accident and dies. She then finds out she is carrying his baby. This changes the dynamic of the relationship between the two girls. Halley now needs to help her friend in completely different ways. Halley is having a hard time being Scarlett's sole support because she has been focused on her own serious relationship while her mother tries to control her every move. Will the girls make it?
Critical Evaluation:
Sarah Dessen has made this book easy to read and full of emotions. It is funny, even though the subject matter is serious. The two girls as characters are very well developed. Scarlett is emotional and full of life. From the beginning of the book, the reader knows something terribly wrong will happen to her. The foreshadowing is there from the start. Halley is the character that quieter girls would identify with. She is smart and very opinionated although she stays quiet most of the time. The negativity around teen pregnancy was interesting in this book because in 1998 there were many teen pregnancies in the United States at the same time.
About the Author:
Sarah Dessen grew up in North Carolina. She was born in 1970 in Illinois but she did not live there long. Both her parents were professors at the University of North Carolina which is where Sarah graduated. Sarah Dessen has always been an avid reader and writer. She really enjoyed high school and many of the stories she writes are derived from her experiences in high school.
Her first book, That Summer, was sold three years after she graduated and she has won countless awards for her books. Someone Like You was republished in 2004 with a new cover to appeal to a whole new group of teens. She lives in the country with her husband, children and dogs. She states on her site that she likes to garden.
http://sarahdessen.com/press-kit/#full-bio
Curriculum Ties:
N/A
Halley and Scarlett are the best of friends. They have been inseparable for years and yet they are very different people. Scarlett is the popular friend who is always doing something new and different. Halley is very quiet and relies on Scarlett to pull her out of her shell and socialize. As the story moves forward, and the girls head into eleventh grade and start their year. Suddenly, Scarlett's boyfriend is involved in a horrible accident and dies. She then finds out she is carrying his baby. This changes the dynamic of the relationship between the two girls. Halley now needs to help her friend in completely different ways. Halley is having a hard time being Scarlett's sole support because she has been focused on her own serious relationship while her mother tries to control her every move. Will the girls make it?
Critical Evaluation:
Sarah Dessen has made this book easy to read and full of emotions. It is funny, even though the subject matter is serious. The two girls as characters are very well developed. Scarlett is emotional and full of life. From the beginning of the book, the reader knows something terribly wrong will happen to her. The foreshadowing is there from the start. Halley is the character that quieter girls would identify with. She is smart and very opinionated although she stays quiet most of the time. The negativity around teen pregnancy was interesting in this book because in 1998 there were many teen pregnancies in the United States at the same time.
About the Author:
Sarah Dessen grew up in North Carolina. She was born in 1970 in Illinois but she did not live there long. Both her parents were professors at the University of North Carolina which is where Sarah graduated. Sarah Dessen has always been an avid reader and writer. She really enjoyed high school and many of the stories she writes are derived from her experiences in high school.
Her first book, That Summer, was sold three years after she graduated and she has won countless awards for her books. Someone Like You was republished in 2004 with a new cover to appeal to a whole new group of teens. She lives in the country with her husband, children and dogs. She states on her site that she likes to garden.
http://sarahdessen.com/press-kit/#full-bio
Curriculum Ties:
N/A
Book Talking:
How would you handle this situation?
Challenging Issues:
If this book were to be challenged, I would go through the selection process with the challenger as well as explain the rationale for the book. There are many good qualities in this book that could be reason to have it in a collection.
Why Read this Book:
This book is a great story of friendship. Life happens and true friends are there no matter what. Teen girls will be able to identify with one of the characters and many have experienced someone in their school who is pregnant. This book is a great one for every teen to read.
How would you handle this situation?
Challenging Issues:
If this book were to be challenged, I would go through the selection process with the challenger as well as explain the rationale for the book. There are many good qualities in this book that could be reason to have it in a collection.
Why Read this Book:
This book is a great story of friendship. Life happens and true friends are there no matter what. Teen girls will be able to identify with one of the characters and many have experienced someone in their school who is pregnant. This book is a great one for every teen to read.
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