Author: Simmons, Rachel
Title: Odd Girl Out
Place of Publication: United States
Company: Gold Medal Books
Date: 2002
Reason, Type and Setting: I selected this book because a friend recommended it to me. This book’s genre is a drama and it takes place in modern day at a middle school.
Plot: The major conflict in this book is how the main character Vanessa Snyder is bullied by a group of girls at her school. The important characters are Stacy, Nikki, Tiffany, Emily, and Vanessa’s mom Barbara. In the beginning of the book Vanessa is a very happy, nice and smart girl who is part of the popular group at school. Her best friend Stacy is the leader of the group and her friend Nikki is also in the group but is secretly jealous of Stacy and Vanessa’s close friendship. One day Nikki see’s Vanessa talking to a cute boy named Tony who is the star athlete of the school’s basketball team. Tony really likes Vanessa and asks her out but Vanessa denies him because she knows that Stacy has a crush on him, even though she likes him. Nikki then manipulates Vanessa and spreads rumors saying that Vanessa stabbed Stacy in the back by flirting with Tony. Stacy’s group ignores and isolates Vanessa at school and soon the whole school dislikes her. Things start to escalate and Vanessa becomes very depressed because of the bullying. Then she ends up having a nervous break down and almost dying after accidently overdosing on sleeping pills.
Character: Vanessa Snyder is a very sweet, smart, and pretty girl. Even though se is in the popular clique in the beginning of the book she is not stuck up or mean like Nikki and Stacy. She has been best friends with Stacy since she was very young and feels like she can trust her with anything. Vanessa plays a very big role in the plot because the book focuses on how she is the victim of bullying on a mental and emotional level, instead of physical. I selected this character because I could empathize with her the most, and I liked her as a person the most because the rest of the girls in the book are very mean and fake. The plot changes her in many ways. She is very innocent and naive in the beginning of the book, but even though she goes through a lot of emotional pain and stress it makes her into a stronger person because she learns to stand up for herself, and also who her true friends are.
Evaluation: Overall I really enjoyed this book and thought it was very exciting and suspenseful. I thought it was very entertaining and interesting because it did a really good job of depicting what many girls go through in today’s society’s schools. This novel did inform me because it showed me that bullying in a psychological way can be just as or even more damaging as physical. I also learned how important it is to not let negative people (like the characters Nikki and Stacy) bring you down in life and make you feel bad about yourself. Because those people will always exist even out of high school. I would definitely recommend this book to people, especially young people because it can teach you a lot.
This book was very realistic because it explains how girls psychologically bully each other in school. It also describes how it is a growing problem in our society and how this kind of bullying is very hard for teachers and parents to notice and to punish students for. This book can educate different kind of people such as teachers, parents, and teenagers about bullying which I think is very important.
If I were in the plot I would have made different decisions than Vanessa. For example if my friends were being mean and treating me with no respect I would talk and confront them about it but after that move on, because I wouldn’t want to have negative and fake people around me who I can’t trust. I would have not taken the bullying as seriously as Vanessa and would not let it hurt me as much as it did to Vanessa. I would not change the ending because I really liked the way it ended because Vanessa finally confronts Stacy and finds her true friends.
Author, Context and Trivia: Rachel Simmons is an American author who is most famous for writing novel Odd Girl Out. She grew up in Maryland and graduated from Lincoln College in Oxford. Odd Girl Out has been her only novel, and she works as an attorney and is a member of the Maryland General Assembly. I have read a book similar to this which was called Speak and it was about a girl who was also bullied and isolated at school. I liked both of the books about the same, because the plots were both very interesting and suspenseful. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend that middle school and high school students because they could learn how to deal with bullies and also why they should never bully other students.
Title: Odd Girl Out
Place of Publication: United States
Company: Gold Medal Books
Date: 2002
Reason, Type and Setting: I selected this book because a friend recommended it to me. This book’s genre is a drama and it takes place in modern day at a middle school.
Plot: The major conflict in this book is how the main character Vanessa Snyder is bullied by a group of girls at her school. The important characters are Stacy, Nikki, Tiffany, Emily, and Vanessa’s mom Barbara. In the beginning of the book Vanessa is a very happy, nice and smart girl who is part of the popular group at school. Her best friend Stacy is the leader of the group and her friend Nikki is also in the group but is secretly jealous of Stacy and Vanessa’s close friendship. One day Nikki see’s Vanessa talking to a cute boy named Tony who is the star athlete of the school’s basketball team. Tony really likes Vanessa and asks her out but Vanessa denies him because she knows that Stacy has a crush on him, even though she likes him. Nikki then manipulates Vanessa and spreads rumors saying that Vanessa stabbed Stacy in the back by flirting with Tony. Stacy’s group ignores and isolates Vanessa at school and soon the whole school dislikes her. Things start to escalate and Vanessa becomes very depressed because of the bullying. Then she ends up having a nervous break down and almost dying after accidently overdosing on sleeping pills.
Character: Vanessa Snyder is a very sweet, smart, and pretty girl. Even though se is in the popular clique in the beginning of the book she is not stuck up or mean like Nikki and Stacy. She has been best friends with Stacy since she was very young and feels like she can trust her with anything. Vanessa plays a very big role in the plot because the book focuses on how she is the victim of bullying on a mental and emotional level, instead of physical. I selected this character because I could empathize with her the most, and I liked her as a person the most because the rest of the girls in the book are very mean and fake. The plot changes her in many ways. She is very innocent and naive in the beginning of the book, but even though she goes through a lot of emotional pain and stress it makes her into a stronger person because she learns to stand up for herself, and also who her true friends are.
Evaluation: Overall I really enjoyed this book and thought it was very exciting and suspenseful. I thought it was very entertaining and interesting because it did a really good job of depicting what many girls go through in today’s society’s schools. This novel did inform me because it showed me that bullying in a psychological way can be just as or even more damaging as physical. I also learned how important it is to not let negative people (like the characters Nikki and Stacy) bring you down in life and make you feel bad about yourself. Because those people will always exist even out of high school. I would definitely recommend this book to people, especially young people because it can teach you a lot.
This book was very realistic because it explains how girls psychologically bully each other in school. It also describes how it is a growing problem in our society and how this kind of bullying is very hard for teachers and parents to notice and to punish students for. This book can educate different kind of people such as teachers, parents, and teenagers about bullying which I think is very important.
If I were in the plot I would have made different decisions than Vanessa. For example if my friends were being mean and treating me with no respect I would talk and confront them about it but after that move on, because I wouldn’t want to have negative and fake people around me who I can’t trust. I would have not taken the bullying as seriously as Vanessa and would not let it hurt me as much as it did to Vanessa. I would not change the ending because I really liked the way it ended because Vanessa finally confronts Stacy and finds her true friends.
Author, Context and Trivia: Rachel Simmons is an American author who is most famous for writing novel Odd Girl Out. She grew up in Maryland and graduated from Lincoln College in Oxford. Odd Girl Out has been her only novel, and she works as an attorney and is a member of the Maryland General Assembly. I have read a book similar to this which was called Speak and it was about a girl who was also bullied and isolated at school. I liked both of the books about the same, because the plots were both very interesting and suspenseful. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend that middle school and high school students because they could learn how to deal with bullies and also why they should never bully other students.
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