| Title | : | A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0385747020 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780385747028 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 228 |
| Publication | : | First published January 10, 2006 |
on top? A bad boy may always be a bad boy. But this bad boy is about to meet three girls who won't back down.
A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl Reviews
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Find all of my reviews at:
http://52bookminimum.blogspot.com/
2.5 Stars
Once again, this was another selection for . . . .
This is the cautionary tale of three different girls who each fall into the same “bad boy’s” web. Truth be told, I was looking for more of a “John Tucker Must Die” vibe or at least for it to get around the school that this fella had a tiny pecker or something, but sadly that was not meant to be. Basically this was . . . .
I’m clearly not the target demographic, so teenage girls might really find this relatable. As an oldster I found the characters to be severely one-dimensional and the pacing to be on fast-forward. -
EDIT: I just passed this book on a shelf at my library, it had a huge sticker taped to it. Apparently it is one of the books that people have asked to ban, so it is being put up for anti banning books awareness. As someone who is generally against banning books and as someone who is for the freedom of reading what you like, this is not okay !!
Review from May 23 2018:
Hmm.
On one hand, I feel like most girls who are more naive should read this, there are so many guys out there who will take advantage of more innocent girls, who think the best of everyone.
I have a friend who should read this.
On the other, this book was a little too crude in some parts for me, and although I'm sure getting out of an abusive relationship makes a girl stronger, I'm not sure if saying that dating a "bad boy" is good for a girl in the end.
But I do think it presents a good lesson to girls about not giving themselves away to just any guy. -
Independent Reading
A Bad Boy Can Be Good For a Girl
Every girl in a point in time has been a teenager, and during that period of time known a little something about a Bad Boy. A Bad Boy is usually the hot good- looking guy in school that all the girls want to be with, and knows he is only after one thing, but can’t resist his charming ways. This takes place in the fictional novel A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl by Tanya Lee Stones. Three girls named Josie, Nicolette and Aviva crumble to the charms of a cute high school senior. Throughout the book, these three girls share the experiences they had with the hot jock and the misfortunes of it. We are first introduced to Josie, a freshman, whose hormones rise when she comes upon the hot jock of their high school. Josie falls for him and in the end learns that her only use to him was for sex.
Angered at herself for being foolish to fall for such doings, she decides to head to the library. There, she finds a way to make girls aware of this Bad Boy. She does this by retrieving the book Forever by Judy Blume, knowing that it is the most read title in the library. At the back of the book are blank pages where she alerts girls of the Bad Boy. She spreads the word of the book around to girls in hopes that it will warn them of what he is up to.
The hot jock moved on to more girls, one being Nicolette, a junior. Nicolette has not read the book and unfortunately, she was already worn down by the Bad Boy’s charms. Nicolette uses her sexuality as a way of having power. When she sees that she is noticed by the hot jock, she cannot resist him. She too is fooled by the jock, and once again he moves on. Aviva is the next girl he makes his move on. Unlike the other two girls, she does not have a clique, but rather is a criss- crosser, meaning she does not belong to any one clique. She has friends in all the different cliques. Aviva is pretty, but not cheerleader pretty, smart, but not geeky, artsy, and plays the guitar, which people fine cool. She is completely surprised to find that the hot jock has interest in her. She gives up her virginity to him and says the words “I love you” while making love. He is turned off and separates herself from her. Disappointed by this, she displays her anger towards him. Nicolette tells Aviva about the book Forever, and is shocked to see what so many girls have written.
All three girls regretful of being gullible, warn others of the Bad Boy. Practice does in fact make perfect, and his ways has made him a professional at what he does. He does this in a way that makes it hard for girls to control their desire, causing them to act out romantically towards him. Once he has what he wants, he drops them like they never existed. The book Forever, definitely symbolizes the important information needed to be passed from girl to girl.
I loved reading this book. It relates to many teens and tells the stories that many have experienced. Others should read this book because the language used in this book is very realistic. It gives a lot of descriptions which allows the readers to easily visualize what is happening. There are at times sexually content, however it is mild. I highly recommend this book to girls that are in high school. I think this book would be very enjoyable and relatable to them. The way it is set up makes it very quick and easy to read. I for one hate to read, however, this novel changed that. Its simplicity made it a success. -
I was tempted to rate this book 3 stars. I’m not the target demographic, I’ll be the first to admit it. I read this book because it was banned at my high school and like... why? Are teenagers not allowed to know about sex? It’s not even all that explicit in the book. I don’t think they ever use anything more explicit that “boobs” and “crotch.” Even though I’m not the target, and I felt some language was a little dated, I can really appreciate what she’s trying to accomplish with this book, and the messages it gave. I think it could have gone deeper into the bad boys motivations, but I understand the one sided perspective because it’s to encourage girls to empathize with the very relatable leads and to really put themselves in this situation and see clearly how bad it is. I think it’s a perfectly serviceable quick read guide to life for it’s target audience of preteen and early teen girls
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Josie, Nicolette and Aviva have one thing in common. He goes by the intials T.L., and he misled them all.
Josie, who never cared much for boys or what others thought of her in the word of Middle School, finds herself slightly less certain upon entering High School. And even though she balks are her own reactions when a hot Senior jock starts paying her attention, she finds herself somehow unable to resist. But he continually pushes her boundries, trying to move beyond where she’s prepared to go. Unwilling to give in, she eventually finds herself left behind. Her situation reminds her of the book Forever, and she seeks it out in the Library in order to begin her payback.
Nicolette has always gone with boys from other schools. She knows what she likes, and knows that in High School it would be bound to lead to a bad rap, since she’s not a guy. But the story of Josie travels the halls, and Nicolette is sure she must not have had what it took. T.L. seems mighty fine to her. She steps right up to be next in line. And even though there are no dates, and she’s never invited to sit with the crew at Lunch, the fact that they have their own special place within the school soothes her.
Until she hears about Aviva.
Until the day with the frog in Biology, Aviva is pretty sure she never entered into T.L.’s radar. But they seem to hit it off, and when he asks her to a party, she says yes. Soon, weekends with the boy become a regular thing, and Aviva’s other life is forgotten. Old friends try to warn her, but she sees things differently. She’s sure this is different. She gives him what he wants, only to find out she gave too much.
One more of many to be left in tears, Aviva takes Josie’s advice and heads to the library to check out Forever. She finds all empty space covered with stories and warning of the one and only T.L. and wonders how it can be possible. And yet, for all that, the girls he’s damaged have all come out for the better, with a little more knowledge to help them along the way. It’s a pretty safe bet that in the end, all he’ll get out of it is a list of empty names. -
Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
Don't let the title of this book fool you. The "bad boy" in question is definitely bad, and the "can be good" part is more in the vein of "thank God I learned something out of this" rather than "oh, he's so gooood to me." That being said, every high-school age girl in the world needs to read this book, before they meet the proverbial bad boy who, although good at breaking your heart, isn't really good at anything else.
Told in verse, A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL is the story of three girls at Point Beach High. Three very different girls: Josie, the super-confident, always responsible, throw-my-hair-up-in-a-ponytail-and- still-look-good girl; Nicolette, the girl who knows she's called a slut behind her back but doesn't care, because by using her body to get what she wants, she's always in control; and Aviva, the Criss-Crosser, who's not too smart, not too pretty, but always popular with every group she befriends.
Three girls, who all have the misfortune of meeting the same bad boy at PBH, not always at separate times. You know the type of bad boy I mean--he calls the freshmen girls "freshmeat"; the abandoned storage closet is his own personal "Red Light District"; the urge to get a girl on her back is much stronger than his desire to get good grades.
When Josie comes to her senses and sees what's happened to herself after being duped and dumped by the bad boy of PBH, she sets out to warn the other girls in school before it can happen to them. What happens next is a story of self-discovery, broken hearts, and renewed spirits for three very different girls.
A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL is a wake-up call to every girl whose ever said she doesn't need a boyfriend to be complete--to every boy whose only looked at girls as a piece of meat with breasts. A great, inspiring read for all ages. -
What if you find these thoughts in your teen daughter's text messages or on her Facebook wall?
"but then he walked right over and fit himself right into my puzzle."
"I hope I remember these feelings forever: stupid, humiliated, foolish, stung, heartbroken, pissed off, and a little bit wiser. I hope I remember forever, so I never fall for this kind of boy again."
"Nobody calls boys whores. Why is that?"
"The phrase "nail her" flashed like a huge neon sign in my brain."
"And I am so pissed at myself because when I get older and look back on my first time, I was really hoping it would be a nice memory."
And then... the song that you hear wailing over and over again through her bedroom door: "I should have given you all of my heart, but there's someone who's torn it apart, and he's taken just all that I have, but if you want I'll try to love again, baby I'll try to love again but I know, the first cut is the deepest?"
What would you do? If you have a daughter, maybe before you get to this point, you should read 'A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl'. -
No matter how hard we tell ourselves not to fall for Mr. Wrong, we can't help falling in love with the "bad boy". You know, the guy who pretends to be in love with you, then used you and pretends that his love for you never happened.
Josie, Nicolette and Aviva have that in common. They fell for the bad boy's tricks. Josie stopped just in time, the others weren't so lucky, but they bounced back and warned the other girls about him, making him an outcast.
This novel in verse, has a great message for girls: Trust your gut. If it tells you something is wrong, don't ignore it. It's easy to give in, but at the end of the day, it will hurt your heart faster. Learn from your mistakes and make sure to don't repeat it. -
As a reader with an interest in banned books (and a writer of a
periodic column on same), I read Tanya Lee Stone's young adult book "A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl" after learning it had been pulled from a high school library in Cody, Wyoming.
In November 2017, after one parent complained about the book (calling it trashy and inappropriate for high school students), a school trustee unilaterally removed it from the Cody High School library, warning there'd be "more to come." True to his word, the trustee has since pulled two more books, David Levithan’s "Two Boys Kissing" and Herbie Brennan’s "The Wizard’s Apprentice."
After learning what the trustee had done, Cody High School conducted a formal review and recommended keeping "A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl" in the library, but the school board went along with the trustee and the book has been permanently removed (no word yet on the fate of the other two titles).
Here’s what the original complainant said about the book and about Cody High School’s library in general:Parent Amanda Minor said her child nearly checked the book out, at which point she looked into what it was about. “People are unaware of what is in library,” she said. “People should know what is available. The high school library is worse than the public library.”
From the same source (see link above), here is what the trustee had to say about the book:The book’s junk. It’s erotica, pornographic.
So is it? I read it to find out.
Briefly summarized, it's a first-person story told by three high school girls: a freshman named Josie, a junior named Nicolette, and a sophomore named Aviva. At different times in the same school year, all three are attracted to a handsome senior on the football team, the bad boy of the title, whose thing is to “nail” girls and brag about his conquests to his buddies. The girls deal in different ways with their own teenage hormones and the pressure the bad boy puts on them. Josie, though sorely tempted, resists and later tries to warn other girls at her school. Nicolette, sexually experienced but still naive, jumps into his arms and only learns she’s made a reputation-destroying mistake afterward. Aviva thinks he shares her level of commitment and succumbs, but the minute she says “I love you,” he loses all interest.
The book is a paean to Judy Blume’s great YA novel “
Forever,” also about a high school-aged girl’s first sexual encounter. “Forever” is in fact part of the plot in "A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl." After resisting going all the way and enduring the football player’s scorn, Josie finds the school library’s copy of Judy Blume’s book and writes a warning about the guy on the blank end pages. She then tells every girl she knows to check the last pages of the book in the school library. Eventually Nicolette and Aviva read the pages as well.
Judy Blume’s "Forever" has been and continues to be banned in school districts around the country, but young women treasure it and pass copies around, and that apparently is what’s happening in Cody, Wyoming with "A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl.” Parents and school trustees can ban it from the school library, but they can’t stop girls from buying and sharing copies.
Is the book junk? Is it pornographic? If you’re one of those parents who cannot deal with the thought of your daughter growing up and having sex some day, a parent who won’t even allow her to get the HPV shot that will help prevent cervical cancer and a horrible death some day, you will by shocked by "A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl.” Why? Because in it 14- to 16-year old girls think about, come close to having, and actually do have, sexual intercourse. There are no pornographic descriptions of the sexual act, but there is some heavy petting, and of course there’s no getting away from the fact that the book is about girls and sex and the dangers thereof.
If you’re another kind of parent, this is exactly the sort of thing you’d want your 14-year-old daughter to read, because it might help her make better choices when those bad boys start coming around.
Whichever kind of parent you are, you should know better than to try to ban books. The anti-sex faction in Cody, Wyoming, virtually guaranteed that every teenaged girl in town will now read "A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl.”
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Rated Age Level: 12 - 17 years; though I think 12 years is pretty young. Depends on the child though.
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I loved this book so much! The sense of girl power in this just made me so happy that this book is out there. I believe that every girl in high school should read this because it has such a great message. This book talks about a guy and how he uses three different girls and shows the different perspectives of the girls. I like how the first girl started writing in a book after she was used, talking about how girls need to watch out for him. It was really good though when after other girls were being used too, they also wrote in the books and it sort of made a support group. Some would write, "Did he take any of you to the dugout?", and there would be like five responses saying, "Yes, he took me" and, "Omg, he took me there too!" Aviva was my favorite character by far though. She had a sense of, "It's his loss," after he broke up with her and I hope I can have that too. I would totally recommend this book to high schoolers my age because it has such a good meaning.
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Josie, Nicolette and Aviva, all ranging between 14 and 18-years-old, are three strong bright girls, but when the same guy enters their lives at different times, he worms his way under their skin and into their hearts and they ignore their gut instincts warning them against him. Everyone gets hurt. Josie is first, and decides to do something about it. She checks out Forever by Judy Blume from the library, and writes a warning to all girls in the back of the book, and tells every girl she meets to check it out. Some listen, some don’t. Everyone learns something; about themselves, how to be stronger, and what to look out for in the future, and it turns out a bad boy can be good for a girl.
This book was just so awesome. Being a verse novel from the point of view of each of the three girls in turn, it feels very much like you’re reading someone’s diary, so feels very personal. Because of how personal it feels, you can’t help but be drawn into it all; you really get into the heads, and hearts, of these three girls, and it was so unbelievably powerful. It also made it hard to read when you know, you just know how things are going to turn out for each girl. The girls are all very different, and so have a different take on the “same old story”- the story being boy meets girl, girl falls for boy, boy breaks girl’s heart – but with each girl, you want to shout and scream at them for their own sake not to fall for it, beat the crap out of this boy, and then give them all a big hug. It was also brilliant that the boy wasn’t named; without a name, he can become the embodiment of every single bad boy out there, and all female readers who know a bad boy will see him in this guy, like I did. The book then becomes your story too as you relive your own experiences while reading about Josie, Nicolette and Aviva’s. As upsetting as it can be, it’s also comforting to think that you’re not the only one.
It’s difficult to talk about the sex in this novel, as it’s all connected with the behaviour of the boy, the feelings of the girls, and the choices the girls make. Before I read the book, I had heard that it was graphic, and it is, but not as much as I thought it would be. The intercourse and oral sex scenes aren’t overly detailed, but there is no steering clear of the desire the girls feel for the boy, and their enjoyment during sexual acts. I found the desire and the enjoyment to stand out and was very believable, but it didn’t overshadow the pain each girl felt when the boy hurt them, which I think is just wonderful. Although there are only a few small mentions, masturbation is brought up, but in a way that makes it seem completely normal, like brushing your teeth, and not taboo, which is great and different from Deenie by Judy Blume, in which the main character gets a bit embarrassed when the topic is brought up in class discussions on sex I don’t think anyone who was to read A Boy Can be Good for a Girl would take the view that sex is fun and they can go and have it, and everything will be fine; this is a story where the sex and the feelings are one and the same, and not two separate things. Although the girls find enjoyment in sexual acts, there is regret when they get so hurt.
I got the feeling that the story wasn’t necessarily moralistic with a message, as in “this is what you should do...”, but more along the lines of being informing as to what can happen, so readers are aware, and can hopefully avoid similar situations. A Bad Boy Can be Good for a Girl is such a powerful, poignant book, and struck such a chord with me. It was just brilliant. All teenage girls should read this book; they should be forewarned. As Josie says, “Forewarned is forearmed. Forever.” -
Wow. I can't remember the last time I gave a book a 1-star. Seriously, I usually give the author a pity star just for trying but this was just a waste of my time. There was nothing special about it, the concept was dull and it was overall a boring read. The format felt like it had to be stylized like that because there was no real content to the book. It was like reading someone's outline for a half-finished concept. None of the girls were compelling or interesting, there was no big picture offered here. I don't know, I just hated this book. I can't even waste any more time reviewing it here.
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Tanya Lee Stone, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl (Wendy Lamb Books, 2008)
As a reward to myself for finishing one book I started in September of 2008 and getting another to the point where I'll be able to finish it today, last night I allowed myself to crack the cover of a combustible, which is my term for a book I stick on my list of stuff to read because I'm so horrified by its very concept that I find the idea that I might end up liking it next to impossible. (It has happened on occasion, however.) I read combustibles for one reason—because they tend to deserve bad reviews far more richly than your run-of-the-mill awful book. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl hits one of my hottest hot spots by claiming to be a “novel in verse”. Now, first and foremost, a “novel in verse” is, when done correctly, a synonymous term for a long poem; think Canterbury Tales or The Ring and the Book here. The problem is that almost every booklength poem I've read in the past twenty years, excluding Daryl Hine's 1970 book In and Out and Ivan Arguelles' brilliant, but seemingly neverending, poem Pantograph (up to, at last count, eleven books, each from 88-96 pages), has thrown over the idea that a novel in verse is a long poem, instead using the idea of narrative verse as a stylistic trick. In other words, it's not a poem as much as it is prose chopped up into little lines to make it “edgy” or “different” than the typical novel. (It also, of course, makes the thing look longer, so that, say, a book that would have been, by some quick-and-dirty figuring, 117 pages ends up being 228.) And while I have seen this repeated time and again over the years, I'm not sure I have ever encountered such a mercenary display of ignoring the poetic in a “novel in verse.”
The opening “strophe” of this monstrosity is:
“I'm not stuck up.
I'm confident.
There's a big difference.”
Please, by all means, if you can find anything even remotely poetic in that passage, point it out to me. You'll look in vain, however, because there is, quite simply, nothing to be found. It's prose broken into short lines, and it's nothing more. But worry not, if you want to carry on the search, there's another 227.5 pages of this nonsense for you to pore over to look for any scraps of elevated language, shreds of imagery, glimmers of rhythm, or any other evidence that Tanya Lee Stone actually worked on creating poetry rather than coming up with a manuscript that was a bit shorter than the publisher wanted and deciding to make it look different, rather than making it be different. As such, the book is offensive on its face; it claims to be something it is most certainly not. And, if it gets popular, it's pretty much guaranteed to unleash on the world a generation of even worse poets than we've had this time around. After all, they'll be looking up to this. (zero) -
I read A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl. This book was pretty interesting actually. I thought I would have not liked it, but turns out, I loved that book. I only checked it out because i had to choose a book, and it was worth checking it out. Anyways, this book is about this girl named Josie, she's a freshman in high school. she met this guy named t.l (they dont say his real name in the book, so those are his initials.) anyways, they start hanging out, kissing and everything.. his friends would always ask if he had "nailed" her yet. and then after they fight a couple times, they end up not talking.
josie then goes into the library, she gets a judy blume book, and in the front/back she writes stuff in it, like "never trust this guy", "he's only there to do one thing."
T.L moves on to this new girl named Nicolette (her name reminds me of cigarettes. haha)
so they start going on dates and they make out, and he almost "nailed" her too. but he didnt. then they break up. Nicolette finds that book, and reads it and writes in it.
then T.L moves on to this other new girl named Aviva, she writes songs, and plays the guitar, anywho, he moves on to her, and they get serious. they actually do the "dirty dirty." Aviva tells T.L that she loves him, he doesn't hear her. and then she finally met up with him a couple days after they "did it" and they talked, and he said that saying"i love you" was going to fast for him, and she said "doing it" was going to fast for her, so they ended up not working out together. In the end, turns out, alot of people read what Josie wrote in the back of the book. it imformative them more of him.
I really enjoyed this book because the author Tanya Lee Stone, she wrote the book in poem like, and it made it go by fast. it was a very easy read for me, and it also caught my attention, thats why i enjoyed it. : ) -
La principal lección aprendida es que todas las chicas deben tener cuidado con los chicos que son engañosos y que solo buscan encontrar una chica con la que anotar. Y que no todos los chicos se comportan de esa manera, pero tienes que tener cuidado con los que constantemente hacen girar toros para entretejerte dentro de su red de destrucción.
Josie, Nicolette y Aviva se sienten atraídos por un chico que va por sus iniciales, T.L. Es un deportista guapo, suave y de alto nivel. Una por una, manipula a las jóvenes para que hagan lo que quiere, incluso cuando están llenas de dudas y desconfían de la forma en que habla de ellas a sus amigos.
Escrito en verso, tres chicas se encuentran con el mismo chico malo. Usando una copia de la biblioteca de Forever de Judy Blume, todas las chicas que han sido utilizadas por este chico se dejan mensajes entre sí, compartiendo sus experiencias.
Este libro no estaba tan mal y ofrecía una visión realista de niñas en secundaria que tienen o son presionadas para tener relaciones sexuales (excepto que no hay ETS). El formato del libro hizo que fuera rápido y fácil de leer. -
Very quick read, novel in verse.
I picked up this book because its frequently banned, so that's always a good reason to check something out.
I guess I'm lucky. I can relate to the girls' feelings, but not their experience. So I hope girls don't read this and throw all guys into that "guys only want one thing" stereotype. Because it's not true. At least in my experience.
The question- when it comes to banned books- is, is this book helpful? Will it save a girl from a little heartache? If so, I suppose it's helpful to have available. I don't believe in censoring anything. But I don't believe everything is valuable either.
I do think this may be of value. If it causes a girl to be a little more cautious. If it makes us more aware. If we wait around for love. -
Quick and appealing read. I read this book because a teacher at my school brought it to my attention for inappropriate scenes. It had one section that was a upfront about oral sex but I didn't feel shocked by it and doubt that many HS students would. I actually thought the story could be useful to a lot of girls. Questioning your worth, how you relate to the opposite sex, new relationships, emerging sexuality are true struggles. Kids can get a lot out of the situation without having to go through it themselves. The girls really banned together which was also a fantastic message.
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Well. Welcome back to high school. This book completely captured the experience of compromising your self-esteem, interests, friendships, etc. for a guy. Not the most pleasant read, but one that should be put in the hands of all teen girls out there. I especially like how she dealt with the notions of empowerment, and how situations can flip on you. But, truth be told, it was a bit of a bummer.
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Loved this free verse novel that explores how one guy in his quest to conquer as many girls as he can effects love and sex with 3 high school girls. What did I learn- this is a good book for girls to read so they can see how a guy can make you do things you don't want, but also how the girls can ignore all the signals.....
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I absolutely LOVED this novel in verse! It told a story that many young adult girls can relate to. I loved how Tanya Lee Stone was able to capture the true essence of three female characterizations! This is definitely a YA novel that the girls will pass around!
