Liz Ruckdeschel

"Even the simplest choices will affect Hailey's social and academic standing. But no matter what she does next, you can be certain Hailey's whole world is about to change..."

I found the premise of this book cute. A girl named Hailey has moved and she is starting at a new school. I mean, she can be anyone right. This book makes you look at Hailey's choices and really dig in to how it may or may not affect her high school years. It was interesting because I went every route for Hailey, making show more her the homecoming queen or the art and newspaper geek, I let her pursue the photographer and then the cute neighbor. It was funny how I started to have moral objections to the other routes I needed to go and it was good to read something that made me think about other's lives and the crud they have to shoulder each day. But there were a lot of points in this book that were silly so you just have to keep in mind it's a YA but a younger ya story..... show less

Okay, I didn't actually complete reading this book, but I really want to review this for teachers who may be in my position. First, I had literally drooled on myself while coveting this series in a bookstore. Last year, I recall, one of my students read my 25-cent garage-sale find,What if....Everyone Knew your Name and loved it, passing it along from friend to friend. After it had circulated the popular crowd, it was never returned. Here, a few weeks before Xmas, I had the whole, crisp show more collection in my hands; I loved the feel of them, the silky rustle of their covers against each other, the charming covers, the concept behind each book, and I fantasized about my gum-smacking, Ug-boot wearing, OMG-wielding bottle-blonde middle school girls becoming honest-to-god READERS after delving into these exciting choose-your-own destiny novels. I considered forgetting my budget constraints for this noble cause, bu I refrained.
One of my 7th-grade girls used her Barnes & Noble giftcard to buy this one, What if....All of your Friends Turned on You and after reading it, passed it my way. Elation! She said, "It was good" and walked away. She didn't hyperventilate and OMG ad nauseum, so I wondered what had gone wrong. Perhaps she was in a hurry. I spent the rest of my plan period snuggling in. Now I know.
The story begins at a New Year's Eve party of several adults and teens all arguing politics. Really, politics. The argument is one in which I myself could be engaged, but definitely not one that my 7th graders are going to follow. I couldn't get a real grasp on any of the characters; they were all in this heated debate about the solution to global warming and I hadn't even met any of them yet, so each name dropped was as if over a cliff rather than into my cup of memory. Shifty....I'm already disappointed. Next thing I know, the teens are jokingly making Ed McMahon references, Al Gore, & Laurence Welk (seriously) and I know the book is doomed to never save even one of my students. Was I wrong about the target audience? Isn't it so VERY middle school? Well, this one certainly isn't. It's so VERY written by a 30-something who is out of touch if that's what she was going for. Hoping that I'm wrong, I ask 3 random students in the hall, "Hey, have you guys ever heard of Ed McMahon?"

"Does he go to this school?"
"No, he's famous; he'd be on t.v." Blank stares.
"No...."
Thanks, that's all I needed to know. This book's a gonner.
I see the owner of this perfectly packaged disappointment and I ask her to tell me the truth. What did she think about the book.
"Well....I kinda didn't get, like, any of it. But I READ it, though. It looked good."
After having her clarify her definition of "read", I deduced that she really had tried, but that she couldn't even get started, let alone make choices for the characters (the best part).
So....further investigation of this series is required. Are they all written by the same author? Are they all a flop? Why, then, did the blue one do so well?
Even though I admit I didn't read this whole book and I don't know what score I, an adult reader, would have given it, I can confidently say that this is not a good choice for middle school girls. I'm not ready to condemn the series; more on that to follow.
As for this one, it should be titled, "What if.....a book that could've been great actually sucks?" show less

This was the first time I read a choose you own path book, and personally, I really dislike it, because I knew what was going to happen, or maybe the book was just too predictable, and predictable books are almost as boring as nonfiction! I might have liked this if it wasn't a choose your own path. If you like deeper books, with more meaning, definitely don't read this! This book is fun, if you feel like living vicariously through a perfect teenage girl.

Reviewed by Allison M. Rotonda for TeensReadToo.com

Haley may be the luckiest girl at Hillsdale High, even if she doesn't know it. She is the new girl. After moving across the country she has a new haircut and a chance to start over. The only problem is that there are a ton of decisions to make and each one will affect the way her new high school career turns out. Luckily for her, other people get to make them for her! In this "choose your destiny" book, readers get to make important social show more decisions for Haley. Each decision changes the ending in some way.

There are a variety of characters that remain the same in each version, but the endings are all different. Should Haley take one of her new friends back to California, or will that spell disaster by mixing her old life with the new one that is going so well for her? Sasha, the soccer star, is suddenly acting strange. Should Haley tell her parents or try to investigate it herself? Along the way there are a variety of gorgeous boys of all types to choose from. Haley will end up with a boyfriend, but is one better for her than another?

On the whole, the book seems to move really quickly and moves from one decision to the next; at others the reader may feel like they missed a step, but it is easy to catch up and is likely a result of multiple ways of ending up in the same place. After reading all of the endings, some are a little more satisfying than others. In my first reading, I made decisions for Haley as I would have made them in my life. That ending ended up being my favorite, but will that be the same for every reader? It's all part of the fun of choosing your own path. show less