Module 14, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl

#1 Bibliographic Information

Stone, Tanya Lee (2006).  A bad boy can be good for a girl. New York: Wendy Lamb Books.

#2 Summary

Josie, Nicolette and Aviva are all students at the same high school.  They don't have much in common, except their experiences with one bad boy.  Josie, a cool, confident freshman, is first.  She believes that her relationship with the bad boy is sincere, until he dumps her when he can't convince her to have sex with him.  She is stung and broken-hearted from the rejection, but Josie soon regains self-possession, and writes a warning note to all the girls in the school in the back pages of the library's copy of Judy Blume's Forever.  She passes the world along for the girls to read the book and the back pages, but Nicolette thinks she knows what she's about--in relationships, she calls the shots.  She begins with control in their relationship, but soon her feelings for the bad boy are too strong, and she lets him lead her on and use her for sex.  Their relationship ends when she discovers he's taken Aviva to a party.  Aviva is a self-defined "criss-crosser"--the kind of girl who floats in and out of all the cliques.  she's funny, smart and pretty--not popular, but not a d-lister--and she likes it that way.  The attention of the "scrictly A-list" bad boy flatters her, however, and she eventually decides to lose her virginity to him.  But after telling him "I love you," the bad boy moves on.  Nicolette and Aviva finally read Josie's warning in the back pages of Forever, and the messages scrawled there by other girls becomes a source of strength for this bad boy's victims.  In making their mistakes with him, the girls learn about themselves, becoming stronger and more prepared for love the next time.

#3 Reaction

When  I first started reading this, and Josie's first thoughts came off so confident, and self-possessed regarding relationships, I thought, "this can't be real.  No girl is like that in a high school relationship."  Thankfully, realism does take its toll on Josie, or this book would have been a failure.  Stone perfectly captures the constant negotiating and excuses that even strong women resort to when in a dysfunctional relationship.  And then, of course, the horrible heart break when the truth suddenly becomes so obvious. High school girls definitely need to read this book, if they want to arm themselves against high school boys.  One of the reviews is "Will be passed from girl to girl to girl," and I have absolutely no doubt that is true.

#4 Reviews for A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl

Review #1

Three high-school girls take turns relating their separate experiences with the same bad boy, a senior jock who seems only interested in one thing: "nailing" them. There's enough in this verse novel to make a grown woman cringe--remembering what it was like back then and that the more things change they stay the same. These narrators, despite their varied backgrounds and ambitions, are interested in, well, the physical realm of boy/girl relations and are willing to kiss and tell: They speak poetry of pedestrian language, which, at its most varied, describes erotic outings and, in one instance, oral sex. High school girls with uncomplicated reading agendas might find this brain candy gratifying. But those with SATs on their minds will find this shallow, repetitive and empty. (Fiction. YA)

--A bad boy can be good for a girl (2006). Kirkus Reviews, 74(1), 45.

Review #2

Gr 9 Up-- Three girls succumb to the charms of one sexy high school senior and emerge wiser for the experience in this energetic novel in verse. Josie is a self-assured freshman who values her girlfriends over boys until a hot jock focuses his attention on her and her simmering hormones break into a full boil. Confused by her behavior, yet unable to control her desire, she acts out every romantic cliché she has ever disdained, until the boy drops her and she experiences the chill of rejection. It is Judy Blume's Forever that sparks Josie's fire again, and finding a few blank pages at the back of the library's copy, she sends a warning to the girls of her school. Next readers meet Nicolette, a junior who sees her sexuality as power. A loner, she's caught by surprise at her own reaction when this popular boy takes notice of her. Suddenly she thinks she sees the difference between sex and love, and then, just as suddenly, he's gone. Finally, Aviva, a pretty, smart, artsy, and funny senior, is stunned when the jock seems to want her. She gives up her virginity, only to be disappointed in both the sex and the boy. Furious, Aviva heads to the library to check out Forever, now crammed with the words of girlswho suffered the same fate at the hands of the same boy. The free verse gives the stories a breathless, natural flow and changes tone with each narrator. The language is realistic and frank, and, while not graphic, it is filled with descriptions of the teens and their sexuality. This is not a book that will sit quietly on any shelf; it will be passed from girl to girl to girl.

--Oliver, Susan. A bad boy can be good for a girl (2006).  School Library Journal, 52(1), 144.

#5 Suggestions for Library Use


This could be another great facebook discussion piece, just because facebook communication allows for open, honest commentary that may not happen as easily with teens in a room.  To make it more interesting, however, the library facebook discussion leader could encourage those making comments to write their thoughts in verse, or even have a separate poetry contest, with a small prize.