Boys, Girls and Other Hazardous Materials

When I heard Rosalind Wiseman was making her fiction debut for teens I just had to read it. I knew her non-fiction book, Queen Bees and Wannabes was the inspiration for the movie Mean Girls and knew this had to have some of that same spirit and it definitely did.

I love how in Charlie's past is a realization that mean girls walked all over her and she stood by and let them hurt people. She realized what had gone down, left the situation and those so called friends behind to start high school with that behind her. She thought she would be able to face off with any mean girls at her new school and do the right thing but she doesn't realize that even though you've been through it once you might not be an old pro by the second time. And this show more time the situation is different, it's mean boys that have never been stopped but will Charlie be the one to stop them?

I really liked the balance in this story, there are friends (new & old), family, school, and a little romance. It's all there and it just sucked me in. It's funny, it's serious, it's tender and real, it's awesome. show less

Boys Girls and Other Hazardous Materials is funny, insightful and addicting! I devoured it in one sitting. Rosalind focuses on one of the main problems in high school....hazing and makes the awesome debut Boys Girls and Other Hazardous Materials.

When i started reading BGAOHM i was instantly looking back at my high school years(this year being my last year in HS) especially my freshmen year.The Characters are real and honest. I can definitely relate to Charlie, she has a great personally and strong voice. Freshmen year for me was....terrifying. The year after that was...interesting. I too, like Charlie run into a best guy friend. He happen to be older and cute lol(now what are the odds of that).You see! Rosalind knows her teens and after show more you've gotten to know the characters in this book they will feel like their either your BFF's or worse(mean BOYS?!?) enemies.

I enjoyed this book and thought that the characters were great, the story just had depth.Wiseman is awesome, i look forward to more of her books in the future.I think teens will definitely like this book.Once you read it you going to fall in love with it show less

It was pretty much your typical teen book. Charlie actually thought leaving her old neighborhood jr. high and the drama along with it would make her life easier. Little does she know drama is everywhere, no matter what school you go to. In the beginning things were really looking up for her. She started to get new friends and started her own column in the school newspaper. Unfortunately the past has a way of catching up to us. She comes face to face with her ex-friends; some gladly welcomed and others not.

There's a little bit of everything in this book as far as teen dramas go. Romance, frenemies, and bullies. Charlie learned that things like that are everywhere so eventually she stops running from these things and stands up for show more herself. She refuses to be pushed around any longer. Soon the time comes for her to decide between what's right and wrong even when sometimes doing what's right can hurt friendships. This book is what I call "warm and fuzzy" lol. It's not dark, and no it doesn't make your pulse quicken, but it does make you get that warm and fuzzy feeling inside when you read it because it's what you hope for and expect. show less

The title of this book intrigued me, and it was one that I couldn't wait to get started. Unfortunately, it wasn't stellar. It was a light, enjoyable read, but I'm afraid one that will be quite easily forgotten. Already, the character's names have faded from my brain, and I have to go back to the pages to remember them. Charlie (Charlotte) Healey chooses to attend a high school out of district just so she can avoid the mean girls she associated with in grade eight. Which is fine and believable until she ends up with not one, but two people from her past now attending her new high school; Will, her best friend/kindergarten buddy who moved away last year, and Nidhi, who is a girl she scorned in the past. Charlie manages to patch everything show more up with both of them AND meets a new friend on her first day of school. Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. It has some highlights such as some hazing, which Charlie and her friend Sydney witness, a disappointing teacher, Ms. Fieldston, who pretends to be there for the girls, but actually lets them down on a couple of occasions, and a friendship turned romance which readers will see coming long before Charlie does. So overall, a fun read that would make a great beach book IF it was in paperback already, which it isn't. show less

Plot: The first half of the book focuses on Charlie finding her way around her new school and making new, and much better, friends while the second half focuses on the actual hazing stuff and what some students feel they need to do in order to fit in. I can’t really say I related much to either because that sort of thing doesn’t happen at my high school, but I know it is a common occurrence in others. There was a lot more dialogue then I felt necessary. Really there were just a lot of unnecessary words in general. Overall it was a pretty predictable plot. Only a few things seemed to shock me, but only because I felt they were random.

Characters: I liked Charlie and could really relate to her need to ditch her middle school friends show more and find new, drama-free ones. I was glad to see her finally standing up for herself and doing what she knew was right. I love that she stayed true to herself. Will was a sweetheart and just a normal teenage boy trying to fit in and be liked by his fellow teammates and schoolmates. Their crushes on each other were very obvious and I saw then ending coming from the beginning. I’ve always been a fan of the best-friends-turned-into-a-couple romance and theirs was no different.

Cover: I felt that the cover and, even the title, was a bit misleading. It made me think there was going to be a lot of chemistry involved, but there wasn’t any chemistry between the characters and I don’t even think that was one of their classes. It’s still cute though.

Overall Impression: I had heard a lot about this book which set my expectations pretty high and unfortunately I don’t feel like they were met.

Fun Fact: The movie Mean Girls was loosely based off of Rosalind Wiseman’s other book, Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends, and Other Realities of Adolescence. show less

I liked it. This book was really well written, and it was enjoyable. The only thing i didn't like was the fact that it took so long to get to the real action. But maybe that's just because I like fast paced books.

After a terrible 8th grade year caught in the midst of the Mean Girls, Charlie is looking forward to starting over at Harmony Falls High School. But instead of Mean Girls, Charlie finds herself having to deal with mean boys.

I mean, the book was fine. It was okay. It was mostly enjoyable, though my attention started to wander about halfway through. I don't know that this book added anything new to the shelves upon shelves of YA fiction available and the main hook seems to be that the author wrote Queen Bees and Wannabes, which I'm not sure your average teen really cares about...

Read my full review on my blog: http://abbylibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/12/book-review-boys-girls-and-other.html