Life Is Funny

This remains one of the best YA books I have ever read. Masterful, entirely true to its teen characters and their distinct voices and personalities. If I could be half as good a writer as E.R. Frank I would be extremely happy.

This book has very crude and vulgar language, and is filled with the realities of drugs and poverty. It is very raw and is about hard lives. It made me uncomfortable knowing that young adults would be reading it but as I read each story, the absolute truth involved in each scenario, the grittiness of the people and lives, I found myself certain that this book must get into the hands of young adults. It is powerful and truthful, and is a recipe for strength through its honesty.

The title of this book is ironic because I found very little in it to be funny. Over a seven year period of time, the lives of many different kids are portrayed, some of them intersecting and crossing. This is a hard, gritty look of life in the Bronx.

This isn't really my kind of book, but for some reason I liked it.

It had good characters with a good story. Some of the relationships were a little intense and I found that scene in the library a little... weird. (If you've read it, you know what I mean.)

But overall it was good. It didn't really have much of a story; it was more of a 'day-in-the-life' sort of thing. But it was decent.

This title was listed when I searched for "funny" books in the collection in preparation for the LOL theme of Teen Read Week. The funny in the title does not refer to laugh out loud funny, however. It is a really good read about the various circumstances of a group of young people whose lives intersect.