Wonder - Softcover

Grade 6 - 8-- When feisty 12-year-old Jessica enters junior high school, she realizes that life is not always easy. Her former best friend, Sheila, and five other girls have created a clique and will not even acknowledge her existence. With an iron will, Jessica forces herself to act nonchalantly even when the group leader ridicules her, saying that her new dress looks like a Wonder Bread explosion. The nickname "Wonder" sticks, and Jessica's worst nightmares coming true--eating lunch alone, no friends, and exclusion from the boy-girl parties. And then, Conor O'Malley sails full force into her life, making her reassess the things in life worth fighting for. Jessica's first-person account reveals a three-dimensional character with whom readers will laugh and empathize. Her wit and sarcasm shine through her rambling confessions; even at her worst, one realizes that Jessica is a true survivor. Skillful writing replete with humor portrays the minor characters as strong foils to Jessica; someone as bold and confident as popular Tracy has her weak moments and does not always have the solution. The underlying message rings loud and clear--only when one realizes that everyday is a new challenge that has to be faced with laughter, backbone, and determination can he or she perservere. Readers who have grown up with Paula Danziger's and Ellen Conford's heroines will revel in the rollicking escapades of Jessica.
- Debra S. Gold, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cleveland, OH
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Seventh grade begins as a disaster: not only has Jessica's best friend Sheila made an alliance with five other girls who arrive dressed alike, but the new group dubs Jessica ``Wonder'' (as in Wonder Bread) in honor of the bold polka dots she's wearing. Thrown by suddenly becoming unpopular, Jessica stumbles through one awkward response after another, snubbing the hesitant overtures of Conor, a boy she really likes, and slow to realize that the best way to counter jibes is to join in the laughter. Fortunately, Conor persists, becoming a confidant as well as a first boyfriend--loyal even when Jessica assummes, wrongly, that he's been kissing Sheila during a party game. At first glance, this is just another story about friendships; but Vail has the measure of this vulnerable age and its painful concern about identity within the group. Gauche, likable Jess--seeing herself in an unlucky bird caught on a kite string, reverting to childhood in a romp with the boys in the creek, quietly saving money for Dad's troubled business, getting the crowd on her side at last by dressing as Wonder Bread for Halloween, or revealing her continuing affection for Sheila by defending her, to her own surprise--is a character to remember. A skillfully fashioned, accessible first novel, with no pat answers but a satisfying conclusion. (Fiction. 10-14) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.