Module 9: A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl

Module 9: A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl

Book Summary:

Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva are three very different girls with one thing in common: a high school senior with only one thing on his mind. They each get involved with him in a different way, but when each girl learns what his true nature and motive is, they decide to stand up and fight back. Josie starts a sounding board for all the girls of the school that have been involved with the particular senior boy in the school library's copy of Judy Blume's Forever. The response from all the girls who have been involved with this one boy is staggering and helps each of them to realize that they are not alone in their situation. Nicolette goes into her relationship with the boy very confident and leaves it very shaken, after the boy reduces her self-confidence. As a result she reads the copy of Forever and she forms an unlikely friendship with Josie. Aviva later joins them and is amazed at the outpouring of empathy found filling the blank pages of Forever. Each of the girls finds comfort in the fact that they are not alone and that their story might succeed in helping prevent his use of another girl who doesn't know his tricks.

APA Reference of Book:

Stone, T. L. (2006). A bad boy can be good for a girl. New York, NY: Wendy Lamb Books.

Impressions:

The first thing that I noticed about this book was the title. While it is hard to miss, it also is what drew me in and made me want to read the book. It seems counterintuitive because inherent in the term “bad boy” is the word bad so I became intrigued and decided I needed to know the answer to this question. After finishing the novel, I understand the message that the author was intending; that the “bad boy” is not necessarily good or bad for a girl, but the experience she gains from interacting with or being in a relationship with the “bad boy” can benefit her and help her gain worldly experience so she will perhaps understand the situation better the next time around. In this novel, the experience also leads them to new friends and a sisterhood formed from shared experiences.

After finishing the novel, I am left wondering what message that a young adult reader takes away from this. I hope that they see examples of what can happen in any relationship and that in any relationship, preserving your individuality and values is critical. I hope they do not see these relationships as the norm because while the reader does see each relationship fall apart, the “bad boy” in question attempts to continue on his conquest of other girls at the school. This is not okay! The school copy of Judy Blume’s Forever becomes a warning, but as the novel itself showed, it cannot protect or reach everyone and common stereotypes of male behaviors shouldn’t be so reinforced. It would have been nice to see the boy in question receive his karmic comeuppance, but as far as the reader knows, he will continue on, even with many girls aware of his antics.

Professional Review:

STONE, TANYA LEE A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl. Lamb, 2006 228p Library ed. ISBN 0-385-90946-2 $16.99 Trade ed. ISBN 0-385-74702-0 $14.95 Ad Gr. 9-12

A studly senior, initials T. L., prowls his way mercilessly through the halls of a high school, scoping out girls vulnerable to his predatory charm, only to dump them once the relationship is sexually consummated or it becomes obvious that it won't be. His story is told through the affecting free verse of three of his conquests, Josie, Nicolette, and Aviva, each of whom initially insists that she is confident in her own attractiveness and resistant to the games of players like T. L. His first glance, however, turns them into puddles of goo, and they each willfully mistake his attention as an affirmation of their specialness in his universe, ignoring the overheard jibes of his friends and fully believing his made-for-teen-movie lines. Josie, the youngest of the three, is the most self-aware both during and after her seduction, and she decides to "out" T. L. by turning the blank pages at the back of the library copy of Forever into a bulletin board for the burned, directing both Nicolette and Aviva there when it becomes obvious that they have joined that not-very-select club. This is an appealing topic, and Stone creates credible voices for her girls. The message of strength is undercut, though, by tired clichés and stereotypes, especially as the girls, at first so assertive about their empowered sexuality, wilt into needy and deceived victims, and the boys are given no credit for any emotional depth or complexity. Moreover, there is the clear message that this kind of pain is necessary for female emotional growth and that being savvy enough to avoid it is somehow a mark of immaturity, as these girls pity their friends who haven't yet crushed and been crushed. This will nonetheless speak to a large audience of girls willing to martyr themselves on the altar of heartless high-school demigods; recommend it to girls who take grrl rockers' "pain is power" lyrics as their late-night anthems. KC

Coats, K. (2006). [Review of the book A bad boy can be good for a girl, by T.L. Stone]. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, 59(8), 375. Retrieved from: http://bccb.lis.illinois.edu/

Library Uses:

Add to a display of young adult fictional books addressing topics of adolescent relationships.

Add to a suggested reading list of great books with intriguing titles.