Babe in Boyland

I know I say this every time I review a contemporary novel, but I rarely actively want to read contemporary. I just can't get over this roadblock in my head that says contemporary is either Gossip Girl fluff or slit-your-wrists depressing. This, despite all of the incredible contemporary I've read. Whatever, welcome to my brain. The point is, I rarely wishlist contemporary books, but Babe in Boyland, for whatever reason*, was one I wishlisted. So when Jody emailed me, asking if I'd like to review Audrey's Guide to Witchcraft, and also offered up Boyland, I jumped at it. And once again, I was reminded of why I need to take down that roadblock, brick by brick, because I'm missing out on really good contemporary books.

This was funny. show more Really funny. Like, laugh out loud, snorting and chortling and reading parts over again, funny. Natalie just sparkles on the page, she is so thoroughly likable and engaging. Most readers will be familiar with the story because, lets face it, we've seen it before. This is a pretty common trope, actually**. But there's a reason it cycles back periodically - there's something compelling in it, and something with built in shenanigans, which always makes for a good time - but I think Gehrman puts her own stamp on things quite nicely, and Natalie is so engaging that I don't think I would even care if it was an exact play-by-play of something else. Though the men at school may hate Natalie's alter-ego, Dr. Aphrodite, and may think Natalie is clueless, it's hard not to like Natalie herself as a narrator. She is clueless in the beginning, but adorably so, and she doesn't stay clueless for long.

The friendships are fantastic as well - the interactions and the confronting of stereotypes/cliques, etc., are nicely handled. It's sadly rare to see positive female friendships in books these days - they tend to go either Mean Girl or Cardboard; if they're not flat and boring and easily substituted, they're competitive, combative, snide, and fake. Less friends, more frenemies. It's sad because while, yes, occasionally one girl may have that relationship with another girl - who may or may not be her friend - that's not the standard. (Surprise! Girls can be friends! Anne and Diana aren't faking it!) Natalie has good, tried and true, close friends who she cares about and who care about her, and help her in her ever-increasing shenanigans. (This isn't to say they don't have their ups and downs, because that would also be cardboard; but they don't serve as a shallow plot device, and I appreciate that.) The boys in Boyland start out as stock characters and evolve from there, much as they should in this type of story - they are fleshed out as Natalie realizes how little she knows, and opens her mind to get to know them, allowing the reader to do the same. Basically, character dynamics were a win in Boyland.

And - that's it.
I don't really have negatives, honestly. Some will feel like it's been done, and it has, and if that bothers you as a reader, you should maybe skip this. But as they say, there's nothing new under the sun, and I think most people either won't have come across this trope often enough to be bothered by it, or will like it too much to care.  It reads like it could easily be a movie (partly because its type has been, partly because Gehrman is also a playwright and she put those skills to work).  Babe in Boyland is now another in a longer-by-the-minute list of contemporary books that have done their best to convince me to start reading more contemporary. This super quick read (I devoured it in one sitting) was engaging throughout, and despite any unoriginality in the plot, I don't have any reservations in recommending it.
Also: Emilio Cruz. Win.

*Gender-bending. Gender-bending was the reason. And the cover, because seriously? Gold star, I love it.
** In fact, one such similar work, the 80's movie Just One of the Guys, even centers around the main character doing her cross-dress thang in an effort to win a journalism contest. Which is Natalie's goal. So there's that... show less

Babe in Boyland was a cute, light read. I read it in a day. It was also hilarious! This book had some of the greatest one liners I’ve read!

For her school newspaper, Natalie decides to become a boy for a week to find out the answers to the questions girls have been asking for years. She enrolls at Underwood Academy as Nat, meets a group of nerdy/sweet boys, and falls in love with her roommate, Emilio.

The story was predictable-think She’s The Man with Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum, but replace Channing with Emilio and replace the “I just want to play soccer” storyline, with “I want to learn about the inner thoughts of guys”. Even with this predictability I still loved it! It’s a feel good book and Natalie’s questions are show more answered in a surprising way.

Her article is called “A Girl’s Guide to Guys: Their Top Seven Secrets Revealed”. The questions are:

When you say you are going to call and don’t, what happened?
Why are you so different when your friends are around? Which one is the real you?
What do you really look for in a girl?
Is it true that guys think about sex every eight seconds, or is that just a myth?
What’s the surest way to tell the difference between a guy who’s being sincere and one who’s just looking to score?
What can make you lose interest in a girl overnight?
If you won’t talk about your feelings, how are we supposed to know what they are?

As a girl, I can safely say we have asked ourselves at least one of these questions when we are with a guy. I enjoyed reading Natalie’s answers and watching her grow throughout the story.

My only complaint concerns Emilio and “Nat”. Their relationship didn’t flow right to me. One minute they are strangers, the next Emilio considers Nat a great friend who he reveals his deepest secrets to, the next they are in love. We see so little of Emilio that it just didn’t feel right. I wish we could have seem them interact more.

Overall, a great story that I would highly recommend. show less

I was very much looking forward to Babe in Boyland for several reasons. Number one being journalism. As the former Editor-in-Chief of my high school newspaper, I am total newspaper geek. Seriously. How could I not be? And high school newspapers are almost never featured in YA books. Why is that? Anyway, the second reason – girl undercover at a boy’s boarding school. Hello, awesome. Undercover, boys, and boarding school. Three of my favourite things. Let me just say – Jody Gehrman did not let me down. I loved this book!

It was nice to finally see a self-confident main character. So many girls have awkward, clumsy, self-concious protagonists, and while that description totally defines me, it’s nice to read about a girl who show more doesn’t look in the mirror and want to shudder. I loved her friends, Chloe and Darby, and I loved Natalie’s observations about them and the way they behaved in front of boys. In fact, all of Natalie’s observations throughout the book really struck me. It’s strange to consider things from a boy’s point of view.

There were a lot of elements in Babe in Boyland that reminded me of other things – She’s the Man, Never Been Kissed, The Lioness Quartet, etc. It really was an awesome combination of interesting ideas and I feel like the author put it together in a great way with a lot of depth.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book. I had a lot of fun reading Babe in Boyland and I thought it about it even after finishing. In fact, I read the book originally on my kindle, but I liked it so much I needed to buy a copy of the hardcover. So yes – check it out. show less

The main character Natalie (who doesn't seem to have a personality beyond a superiority-but-also-a-victim complex and the "adorable quirk" of swearing in German...) disguises herself and goes undercover as "Nat" to an all-boys school with the help of her two best friends Chloe (the bitchy-but-really-has-a-heart-of-gold hit friend) and Darcy (the friend whose only distinguishing feature seems to be having pink hair, I don't even know.)

In the week undercover as a boy, Natalie learns a lot about men, women, gender roles, and herself. She has some good personal growth, and there are some touching moments with minor characters. Plus she has a hot roomie, Emilio (who is Hispanic so, y'know, diversity and stuff) that she has some crazy show more instalove stuff going on with.

Basically, if you want to read a book that's the Amanda Bynes movie "She's the Man" but with a play instead of soccer, this is the book for you! It's a fun, light read, but don't expect it to be more than it is. show less

RATING: 3 stars.

I am a sucker for a good gender-bender (my favorite shoujo manga ever, just happens to be Hana-Kimi), so when I read about "Babe in Boyland" I simply had to read it.

Well, it's a fast, light and fun read (I laughed out loud a lot) but it lacks originality as the core story is basically the same as the aforementioned Hana-Kimi. Still it's pretty funny and I liked how Natalie's perceptions change with her experience.

Natalie, a high-school junior who writes a love-advice column for the school paper, gets criticized because her articles are too one-sided.
When she realizes her critics (mainly boys) are right she decides an undercover assignment is needed and enrolls (by dubious means, I must say) in an all-boys intern school show more called Underwood. She shares a room with a hot guy named Emilio. And well, that's it. It's, like I said, almost the same plot as Hana-Kimi - Mizuki, the manga heroine enrolls because she wants to go to school with her sports idol who happens to go to an all-boys school - but the setting and situations are the same, really.

Except that while Hana-Kimi spans for 23 volumes and develops the romantic story slowly and believably, "Babe in Boyland" proposes to do the same in less than 300 pages, so the two protagonists only have about a week to get to know each other and fall in love. Which is NOT believable especially since Natalie is disguised as a boy.

Most of the characters were walking stereotypes and one of them even gives Natalie a "social tour" of Underwood "a-la-10-Things-I-Hate-About-You".

Overall this was a fun (I'm using this word way too much to describe this book, ahah) read but it lacked depth in the story and character department. Everything happened too fast to be... well, believable. Still, it makes a great read for younger readers and if you liked this book I strongly recommend checking out Hana-Kimi, the japanese manga by Hisaya Nakajo. show less

Why I Read This: It looked like a fun, cute read.

Plot: This story reminded me a lot of She’s the Man with Amanda Bynes which is not a bad thing because I absolutely loved that movie and recently found out it was based on one of Shakespeare’s plays. The plot was a little predictable, but there were parts that were still unique to the story. I loved the theater components of and how they were incorporated perfectly into the story. What I had a hard time believing was how it was so easy for her to be enrolled into the school without any problems or people asking too many questions. That would not have happened in real life, but obviously the same rules don’t apply to books which is why they’re so amazing.

Characters: Natalie was show more hilarious, witty and sarcastic. She was very relatable and I loved her. I also really liked her two best friends, Chloe and Darcy. They couldn’t have been more different from each other, but that seemed to make their friendship even more believable and realistic. Emilio was super adorable and I loved that he was shy around other people, but very comfortable when he was with Nat (aka Natalie). I really liked them all, especially the three friends Natalie makes at the all-boys school she attends for a week.
Cover: The cover is super cute and is what first drew me to the book. The girl is gorgeous and has the biggest and prettiest eyes ever!

Overall Impression: Hilarious! I found myself literally LOLing various times throughout the book. I had fun reading it which is what I was hoping for. I will definitely pick up other books by Jody Gehrman now that I know how great this one was. show less

This was a really light fun read. Definitely different to the deep books I have been reading of late, and so this was a pleasant change of pace.

Natalie in a bid to to an undercover journalism piece, finds herself going in drag as “Nat” to all boys school Underwood Acadamy with the goal in mind that she will get the answers to the questions that girls have about them. Whilst she is there, she has quite a number of eye opening experiences and also finds herself falling in love with Emilio, her latino roommate.

I found it to be really entertaining, I read it all in one sitting, because it was just so easy to get through and I found myself really wanting Emilio to find out about her being Natalie and reciprocating her feelings for him!

It show more took me back to high school where my girlfriends and I were preoccupied with boys, relationships, makeup and yes.. acting. I was an actor… a bad one… but an actor none-the-less. Definitely worth a read if you want something light that will make you laugh and make you feel good! show less