Natalie Standiford

This book was recommended to me by the Seattle Public Library's "Your Next Five Reads" feature on their website, where they listed YA books about intelligent, interoverted protagonists. Well, they knocked this one out of the park! Robot Girl and Ghost Boy both felt like the kinds of friends I would have gravitated toward in high school, if not been repelled by with the faint feeling of "how come we didn't get along?" The dramatic arc of the book doesn't get bogged down with life-changing show more platitudes or miraculous deus ex machinas, and for that I'm thankful. The story follows a couple of teens and how they deal with their problems in unique ways, with greater and lesser degrees of maturity. I would rank this book among the catalogs of John Green, A.S. King, and Francesca Lia Block in terms of providing a mature look at late adolescence and the formative experiences that crystallize people as they enter adulthood.

Bonus points for avoiding 'trendy' or 'edgy' uses of sex and drugs to give the story artificial maturity. The story stands on its own. show less

New to town, Beatrice is expecting her new best friend to be one of the girls she meets on the first day. But instead, the alphabet conspires to seat her next to Jonah, aka Ghost Boy, a quiet loner who hasn't made a new friend since third grade. Something about him, though, gets to Bea, and soon they form an unexpected friendship. It's not romance, exactly - but it's definitely love. Still, Bea can't quite dispel Jonah's gloom and doom - and as she finds out his family history, she show more understands why. show less

At the center or this story is the complex, platonic relationship between two misfit teens. There's no real romance (which is kinda nice). But the love that develops between these two friends is so much more meaningful and real than anything, say, Bella and Edward ever shared. I was a bit surprised by how much the later developments in the story affected me, but I guess that's what happens when characters are developed well--you care. The complicated family relationships were well-developed show more and authentic. And you hear everything through Bea's wonderful voice. Don't be misled by the title: there are no robots in this book, but there is a fair amount of quirkiness, humor, heart break, and humanity. show less

{My Thoughts} – Some of the best books I have read have been written in a diary/ letter style. Claire begins by writing a letter to her friend Bess that moved to California. Each chapter is a new letter that she writes to her friend.

I enjoyed getting to learn Claire and her personality. I also liked how the boys in the story were so different from her that it made sense they would all clash. How could they not? Claire ends up being the only girl in her entire school this year, she show more wouldn’t have been alone except that Bess had moved. The things that happen when you are the only girl in school can become unreal. Some of the boys that were her friends, stopped being her friends, others started to treat her worse and worse.

Why do you think the boys were treating her so different? What kind of feelings do you think she would have been dealing with? Do you think that it’s really possible she’d be the only girl in her school? Is she the only young girl mentioned in the entire book? Are the perks to being the only girl in school? So many questions and they all get answered as your reading the book.

I think that any child would enjoy this book. It has an interesting take on what would happen if one would find themselves as the only girl in school. Claire had a lot of ups and downs within the book and I think that the ways in which she handled situations was appropriate for her age. I do wish that she would have been more open with her teachers but seeing it from a child’s point of view you can understand why she wasn’t as open as she could have been.

I didn’t like how the book started as a letter Claire was writing to Bess and then in a few it had her replying to some of Bess’ letters. I don’t understand why it is like that in the beginning of the book, but it didn’t stay that way throughout the book. I think had it stayed that way it would have made the book a bit more interesting. However, if it weren’t going to stay that way maybe it shouldn’t have started that way? I don’t know for sure. show less