About book A Bad Boy Can Be Good For A Girl (2006)
Hmmm... so you are thinking that that the hot, popular senior in your school is over the moon about you and can't get enough of your wit and charm mixed with a bit of sexiness? Well join the club! Because chances are if he is romancing you, he has romanced others and you won't be the first or last! Join the "broken hearts club" ladies because some guys just want you as a trophy- and the game they are playing is you. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl is the terrific story of three high school girls who don't have anything in common except for the betrayal and embarrassment they feel when they are used and dumped by a guy known only as, T.L. Each girl has her reasons for being attracted to him and each girl will discover why other girls have been left confused, broken-hearted and angry thanks to, Josie who tries to save the others from going through what she went through by leaving a note in her favorite book in the library, Forever, By Judy Blume. I connected with the characters in this funny, and yet at times, pathetic story about girls who when it is all said and done, just want to be liked intensely by a “cute guy.” Each girl is naive in her own way (Josie is a Freshman who is wooed by T.L’s smooth talk; Nicollette sees herself as a “guy magnet” and is somewhat invincible when it comes to getting hurt; Aviva is a “granola/hippie” who finds herself inexplicably attracted to T.L., though she professes to know how bad boys operate) but what they all have in common is the belief that they are special- special enough to win the heart and full-time attention of a guy who has a reputation of not sticking around, especially if he has sex with you. It just goes to show what happens when we let our hormones dictate what we do instead of our brains!What’s particularly familiar for me as a reader is that even adult women tend to have this idea that we can “save” a man or that we are somehow able to turn a bad boy into a good one. Ladies, this doesn’t happen anywhere on the planet except on TV or in a book. What I enjoyed about this misadventure is that eventually the girls get it- they know that they were used by T.L and yes they are hurt, embarrassed and feel rather foolish, but in the end, they don’t turn on each other, they turn toward each other and make him the outcast. Indeed they learn the most valuable lesson about how good girls can actually be helped by a bad boy.
POETRY CATEGORYContains adult content. Probably best for 15-up.Parents read first perhaps?A novel told in verse through the eyes of three high school girls, A Bad Boy can be Good for a Girl is a book about girls who get mixed up with the same bad guy. He's manipulative, after sex, and willing to sweet-talk and lie his way to his goal. Each girl is different in her background and personality, and each girl handles his advances differently, to different ends. The story is about sex, love, and the loss of innocence, with the overall message being: STOP, LOOK, LISTEN, and THINK before you jump into bed. And if you do end up making decisions you wish you hadn't, remember you aren't alone and there are people there to help you figure things out and make better choices. I'll be honest, I liked this book. The free verse was engaging and accessible. The varied perspectives were as interesting as they were revealing. And because the girls involved are so different from each other, the book and its message are likely to resonate with a wide range of young adult girls. That said, I know that some parents and educators would be upset with the book, not just because it talks about sex, because it does so in such a realistic way. While not overtly offensive, the emotions, feelings, (physical and emotional) and urges of girls are accurately described. In some ways, I felt this accuracy was the strongest part of the book. Teens know and will relate to these visceral feelings. In my opinion, this explicit description is what makes the consequences of the actions described so real for teen readers. That said, had my own mom flipped through and read some pages of the book, she likely would have thought I was reading some sort of pornographic romance novel. Then again, had she read the thing all the way through, she would have found a message about waiting to have sex, and about turning to trusted adults (like your mom) for help when you need help navigating the perils of predatory males and your own budding sexuality.
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Giving it 5 star. I read it 6 years ago. I do not remember it much.Just the poetrc lines or rhyming words. Somethinh like that.Bu it was the first book i read in english language.THat"s why 5 stars.I remember that there was a boy. A reaaly wala bad boy. Three girls.One wild.One Beuty Queen of school.One very silent and cute type.And he bang all the three and thinks that this time he is in love.Everytime boy found another one and girl just think "its okay its none".There was a book in libraray , in which every girl write opinions about that boy.But no girl beleive them.Thats all i know.I t is one stand reading.
—Faizan
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.
—Merary
Very rarely do I not like a book. Unfortunately, this is one of those rare books. I will admit that I am biased, and I dislike girly books about boyfriends and relationships, which is perhaps why I didn't like this book from the begining. However, as I continued to read, I did not find any redeeming qualities to this book at all.My main issue with this book was how unbelievable it was. It is basically about three girls who date the same "bad boy," and their relationships end horribly. However, each girl seems to recover from her relationship with the bad boy awfully quickly. This really concerns me because two of the girls have sex with the "bad boy" before things go awry. For many girls, getting dumped after giving herself over completely to a guy is not just something that she can recover from quickly. It can leave lasting, damaging scars that could take awhile to heal. Each girl had about one or two pages devoted to how sad and depressed they felt after their relationship ended, but after that, they suddenly felt empowered and happy and better off than they had before the relationship. I almost feel like the message of the book was that girls should go out and have sex with bad boys because they can learn from the experience and will be better off because of it. This is not a message we want to be sending to young teen girls.Secondly, I did not like how this book was written in verse. It seemed far too short for me, which is perhaps why I had issues with the believability. I didn't feel I could really connect with any of the characters or get to know their true, inner feelings. Plus, I didn't like the idea of how it was narrated by three different girls. If the book had just been narrated by Josie and had been an in-depth look at her relationship, the mistakes she made, and how she grew from it, perhaps I would have liked the book more. However, it felt so rushed, and, as a consequence, unbelievable.I'm not sure the appropriate age group for this book. One of the characters is a freshman, but I do not feel like this book is appropriate for such a young audience. There are several sexual scenes which make this book better off for older readers. I, personally, would not recommend this book to anyone, though, just because of my issues with the believability and the message it seemed to send.
—Laura
