I loved this book! Despite it being a real teen book I just couldn’t put it down. It made me both laugh and cry. I watched the movie immediately after finishing it and thought they complemented each other very well. Makes you wanna be 16 again :-)

We really enjoyed reading this book. Haven’t seen the movie yet but will. We did check the rest of the books out of the library today and are looking forward to reading them.

“Maybe happiness was just a matter of the little uptickes – the traffic signal that said ‘Walk’ the second you got there – and the downticks – the itchy tag at the back of your collar – that happened to every person in the course of a day. Maybe everybody had the same allotted measure of happiness within each day.” (312)

I liked the movie better – that goes without saying (I absolutely loved the movie). Reading the book after seeing the film was interesting – usually, when I read a book, my mind creates the scenes and the characters. In this case, the movie replayed in my mind.

Rather than evaluate this book by the same standards I would apply to Toni Morrison or Anne Tyler, I’ll use a more appropriate measure: I’ll compare it to other novels in the young adult genre and by that measure it’s very good. The language, the style, the spirit of this book is teen spirit – no mistake. The ‘teen-speak’ occasionally irked me, but I’m sure it resonated with the target audience.

I like the way it grapples with values and family and relationships and grief with a deft hand. The plot flows along. The characters are real and I loved the friendships and bond between the girls. The girls are potrayed vividly, with flaws, insecurities and quirks that make them believable.

And yes, parts of it made me cry. A good read – great for girls and a quick, entertaining read for grown-up girls. I do plan to read the sequel.

Well, I never like to see a movie before I read a book because it’s kind of ruins the imagery for me. But I say this movie before I read the book. I loved the movie so much that it actually inspired me to read the book in the first place. It was a good, or decent book yes, but the movie was much better. I can’t believe I said that, but really. The movie rearranged a few things VERYWELL and really smoothed it out. I was disappointed with the way the timeline and whatnot went in the book I guess. I just figured that the movie held a great story, and I couldn’t even imagine how great of a book it must be. So I was very disappointed by the dialog as well. It was written very…teeny-bopperish almost? It was just written in too young of a dialect if you will, for me I guess. I’d say if you’re going to read this book, know that the movie is better, and look forward to the movie instead.