How I Changed My Life

by Todd Strasser

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Overweight high school senior Bo decides to change her image while working on the school play with a former star football player who is also struggling to find a new identity for himself.

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Kyle blew out is knee and can no longer play football. With interest in nothing else, he is floating through senior aimless and on the verge of being left back. Bo was always the chubby girl who knew her role as wallflower and played her position. That is until she lost weight. Suddenly, Kyle and Bo are at a crossroads. Do they take a chance to change or stay on the road they've been traveling and not upset the status quo? When they do decide to try something new, they face the wrath and the confusion of their friends and family who prefer to keep them in their current social box.

This is the best Young Adult novel I've read year although it was published in 1995. The morale of the story is so heavy, but it is told lightly without show more losing it's punch. Told in alternating points of view, the story was readable, funny, adorable, quick and even a little emotional. (I did get choked up in the end). Although the book has a very girlie cover, it is perfect for both boys and girls. It is realistic fiction that is not depressing. show less
A typical love scenario, nothing more

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169+ Works 17,479 Members
Todd Strasser was born in New York City. While still a child, Strasser and his parents moved to Roslyn Heights, New York on Long Island. Strasser attended the I.U. Willets Elementary school and then the Wheatley School for junior high and high school. Strasser went to college at New York University for a few years, before dropping out. He lived on show more a commune, and then in Europe, where he was a street musician. While he was in Europe, Strasser wrote songs and poems in letters to his friends. He decided to try writing. Upon his return to the United States, Strasser enrolled at Beloit College where he studied literature and writing. After graduating, Strasser worked at the Middletown Times Herald-Record newspaper in Middletown, New York, and later at Compton Advertising in New York City. In 1978, he sold his first novel, Angel Dust Blues. Strasser used the money to start the Dr. Wing Tip Shoo fortune cookie company. For the next 12 years, Todd sold more fortune cookies than books. n 1990, Strasser moved to Westchester County, N.Y., where during the next few years, he wrote various movie novelizations, including Home Alone, Free Willy, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Jumanji. In 1993 he wrote Help! I'm Trapped in My Teacher's Body and since then has written 16 more Help! I'm Trapped... books, as well as several other series. All together, he has published more than 100 books. Strasser is alos a speaker at schools and conferences when he is not busy writing Strasser has won numerous awards in the course of his career, including the 1995 New York State Library Association Award for Outstanding Children's Literature for the Help! I'm Trapped Series, several State Literature Awards, the 1996 International Reading Association Children's Choice as well as the 1996 Children's Book Council Children's Choice for Give a Boy a Gun and the 1996 American Library Association Best Book for Teens. He won the 1997 American Library Association Notable Book for Abe Lincoln for Class President, the 1988 American Bookseller Pick of the Lists, and was a 1988 Edgar Allan Poe nominee from the Mystery Writers of America. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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People/Characters
Bovtia Vine; Kyle Winthrop

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, Teen, Young Adult
DDC/MDS
424LanguageEnglish & Old English languages[Formerly: Synonyms and Homonyms]
LCC
PZ7 .S899 .HLanguage and LiteratureFiction and juvenile belles lettresFiction and juvenile belles lettresJuvenile belles lettres
BISAC

Statistics

Members
143
Popularity
225,612
Reviews
2
Rating
½ (3.36)
Languages
English
Media
Paper
ISBNs
10
ASINs
3