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Summary: Light Fun With Some Good Lessons
Review: "Sloppy Firsts" is a light, fun book about some common issues that teen girls face. Filled with fun references to a lot of pop culture, this novel centers on Jessica Darling and her high school exploits. Jessica is trying to find her identity while dealing with the pressures of popularity, boys, and coping with the loss of her best friend Hope, who has moved away. Take a peek into Jessica's journal and share her ups and downs. Not too deep, but fun and entertaining.
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Summary: Excellent and Fun Coming of Age Story
Review: This debut novel offers up a fairly pleasing take on the high-school novel, replete with cliques of teenagers, sexual (mis)discoveries, angst and confusion, slang galore, and a high dose of comedy. The breezy novel takes the form of a year's worth of teenage journal entries, interspersed with letters to an absent best friend and various comic top 5 and 10 lists. Clearly McCafferty has read and absorbed books like Bridget Jones Diary and High Fidelity and applied the lessons to her own tale for a slightly younger set. It's a very apt novel in that not a lot happens on a day by day basis, and yet quite a bit happens as teenage Jessica struggles to find her identity in the social world of a public high school on the Jersey shore. Her main source of self-pity is that her supercool best friend moved away, leaving her with no one to hang with except the "Clueless Crew"-three blonde bubblegum bimbos. Her diary entries record the latter part of her sophomore year, the summer, and the first part of junior year.Of course a lot of the book revolves around her own ambivalence to the boys on offer at her school. There's the nice boy next door type who's maturing into an idiot jock, there's a the geeky underclassman in her French class, there's her secret crush on a senior, and there's the strange case of the stoner guy. Added to the mix is the popular theme of parents who just don't understand and a body problem (no period for many moons), and it's got all the ingredients. Of course, like many teens of film and fiction, Jessica does tend to write and analyze way above most 15-16 year-olds, but since she's the class brain, it's at least plausible. And in any event, the book is so enjoyable, one is hard pressed to care. McCafferty has created a wholly believable teenage realm, replete with all the right pop-culture references and icons. Especially funny are all the nicknames bestowed on various cliques, as well as the teen slang. The one quibble I have is that Jessica is a huge John Hughes fan, which seems a little unlikely as his movies (Pretty in Pink, et al) were really touchstones for those (like me), who were in high school 15 years ago. But that's admittedly nitpicking on my part, because the book is a definite pleasure. I would especially recommend it to parents of high school students as a tiny window into the world of their kids.
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Summary: BUY THIS GREAT BOOK!
Review: Sloppy Firsts is a great novel which I enjoyed reading very much. The narrator is Jessica Darling, a high schooler, who goes through many experiences and learns a lot along the way. What is Jessica to do when her best friend has just moved away, her dad obsesses over her high school track career, and her mom is too involved with her older sister's wedding to help her other daughter? Jessica must learn how to deal with all these things while tackling other problems which come her way, including her shallow friends, her relationship with one of her guy friends, and bad boy Marcus. I found that Sloppy Firsts told everything like it is. It reminded me of all of the problems that normal teens go through everyday. Jessica's experiences with friends, boys, and parents really sounded like an account of any teenage girl living in America today. It also dealt with many different issues at once, so that every part of the book was interesting. I couldn't stop reading it. There were so many situations where you wished something would happen and you had to keep reading to see what actually WOULD happen. In fact, I tried to put a limit on what I could read every day (needless to say, it didn't work because I finished the book in 2 days). I just found the whole book very interesting, and thought that the way it was told was very funny. I loved how Jessica was so sarcastic and comical with the way she described everything. There aren't too many bad things about Sloppy Firsts. But if it's anywhere near the caliber of this novel, I'd say it's worth it. Another book I loved: The Losers Club by Richard Perez
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Summary: Sloppy Firsts
Review: Sloppy Firsts
By: Megan McCafferty
* * * * * Sloppy Firsts is one of the best books I have ever read! I would suggest this book to any teenage girl! That's probably the only bad thing about this book: guys won't enjoy or understand it as well as girls. If they do read it though, they would learn a lot about girls!
Jessica Darling is the main character. She feels like she has no life after her best friend. Hope moves away. But she does have a life; a very complex life! Jessica thinks just like any other teenage girl: about friendships, school, her social life, her looks, and other things that you will love to read about. This book is basically Jessica's journal with some e-mails to Hope. So it is neat to follow along with her life as it happens.
Whenever everything seems to go wrong in her life, Jess runs into Marcus Flutie. He becomes a big part of her life. She has always said that her boyfriend should be like a "male Hope". That's exactly what Marcus is because him and Hope are the only ones who truly understand her, but Jess just cant make herself realize that.....until the end.
I believe that any teenage girl will be able to relate to this story. It will make you laugh out loud the whole time your reading. It also makes you think about your own life and how to handle your problems. You will find yourself trying to be a better friend and realizing who your true friends are!
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Summary: Sloppy Firsts is a Great Book that everyone should read.
Review: I found Megan McCafferty's novel Sloppy Firsts to be enjoyable to read. The way she wrote it in diary format worked well because it really explained the main character, Jessica Darling's problems the way a teenage would really write them in a diary. Usually first person books don't thrill me, but Megan actually wrote the first person text well. It was amazing how she wrote it so it seemed like Jessica was really there. It didn't seem like an author was trying to write a book as a teenager.
In the middle of Jessica's junior year of high school, her best friend, Hope Weaver, moves away from Pineville, New Jersey, leaving Jessica alone. Jessica's so-called friends at school turn out not to be her friends. All her mother obsesses over is her older sister, Bethany's wedding, and the only things Jessica thinks she has in common with her father are her track meets. She feels alone most of the time so she likes to write in her journal. While she's obsessing to herself that she has no one to go to, the biggest "dreg" in the school, Marcus Flutie, starts to find his way into her heart. Jessica starts to do things for him that she wouldn't normally do, like peeing in a cup for his drug test. Marcus gets sent way and when he returns, he has a totally different personality.
A lot of things happen throughout the summer leading up to her senior year. Jessica becomes better friends with her older friend, Bridget. When Bridget goes to California to try to become an actress, Manda spends the whole summer sleeping with Bridget's boyfriend, Burke. Jessica finds out that her friend Hy, a girl that moved to Pineville from the Bronx, is really lying about who she is. She isn't a girl who came to live with her aunt while her parents figured their marriage out. Hy really is a high class caste who does drugs and has sex.
Jessica blew up about the SOS (Summer of Shame as they called Manda's "thing") in the cafeteria one day and created a cat fight between Manda and Bridget. Marcus and Jessica talked in the middle of the night, especially when Jessica broke her ankle and couldn't run anymore that season. She finally realizes her father and her have more things in common than just running. Since Bethany never comes home after her wedding, Jessica's mom finally started spending more time with Jessica. Time would only tell about Marcus and Jessica and Hope and Jessica.
Megan used good imagery because I could see all the scenes and all the characters in my mind like I was really there. The plot of the story was good because it focused on the main things about the story and didn't go into much detail about little silly things that didn't matter. I believe that the moral of Sloppy Firsts is one day every thing can be bad, and the next day it could turn around. You never know what is going to happen. Don't judge someone and think you know everything about them because there is usually another side to that person that you might not think they had.
This was a really good book and should be on anyone's reading list if they enjoy cute, funny novels about teens. Megan McCafferty did an amazing job writing this book, and I can't wait to read another book by her. Sloppy Firsts went into great detail about Jessica's problems. What was most interesting about it was that it didn't end like I thought it was going to end. When I read most books, I can usually predict the ending by thirty pages into it, but this book I thought I knew the ending and I wasn't even close. I can't wait for the sequel!
Rating:
Summary: Light Fun With Some Good Lessons
Review: "Sloppy Firsts" is a light, fun book about some common issues that teen girls face. Filled with fun references to a lot of pop culture, this novel centers on Jessica Darling and her high school exploits. Jessica is trying to find her identity while dealing with the pressures of popularity, boys, and coping with the loss of her best friend Hope, who has moved away. Take a peek into Jessica's journal and share her ups and downs. Not too deep, but fun and entertaining.
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Summary: Funny and observant
Review: A good peak into the life of your average high school girl. Funny and charming. I also recommend Feeling Sorry for Celia and An Egg on Three Sticks.
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Summary: Sloppy Firsts
Review: Sloppy Firsts: When Jessica Darling's best friend, Hope Weaver, moves out of Pineville, New Jersey, Jessica's life goes all out of wack. Hope is the only person who understands Jessica's quirky personality. So when Hope moves Jessica is left with nothing. She really doesn't have many friends, except the Clueless Crew (who she secretly hates) and Hy a new girl in school who soon becomes just another member of the crew. The boy that she is in love with doesn't even know she exists and on top of all of that she is a complete stranger in her own house. All her dad talks to her about is running and all of her many track meets and her mother is always busy with her older sister Bethany who is about to get married.
Now that Hope is gone a new girl named Hy moves in. Jessica befriends her, but knows that she will never replace Hope. Hy and Jessica soon grow apart as becomes more involved with the Clueless Crew. The crew consists of Bridgett, Manda, and Sara, who are all "Bubble- Gum Bimbos" that are self- absorbed shop-a-holics who's only interests are boys and not getting fat. Jessica grows to hate the crew more and more as time goes by, but they have no idea.
Jessica has turned into a major insomniac without Hope in her life. Whenever she can't sleep, which is every night, she goes out running in the middle or the night. But she soon is able to sleep again when she befriends Marcus Flutie, a surprisingly intelligent, mysterious drugie from school. She talks to him late at night about things she probably would never even think about talking with Hope. Jessica soon develops feelings for Marcus, but doesn't tell anyone, not even Hope. She soon finds her self lying to the most important person in her life.
Jessica becomes alienated from everyone. Not even Marcus fulfills her desires anymore. Her father doesn't speak to her anymore because since she fractured her ankle on one of her midnight excursions they have nothing to talk about anymore. Her mother on the other hand tries to be with her more now that Bethany has left and there is no more wedding to plan. But Jessica just can't stand her mother treating Jessica like she is just another Bethany. Since she is her mother Jessica tries to be nice on her Birthday, but instead of this being a fun filled day it turns into a crying fest when Jessica tells her mother how she really feels about everything in her life. After this wonderful conversation they both understand each other and are willing to give it another try. But now school is almost over for Jessica and Hope will be coming soon and she is prepared to tell Hope everything, even about Marcus.
This novel is very humorous and interesting to read, but it also reminds of all the difficulty of growing up. It reminds grown ups of all the hardships they had to go through in high school, like being popular and looking good for all the boys or girls at school. It is a wonderful teen book, especially when they are going through some of the changes that Jessica had to go through. It also should be read by adults and parent to remind them of the old days and try to understand their teens a little bit more.
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Summary: Sloppy Firsts Review
Review: Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty was one of those books that you don't want to set down. The book starts with Hope Weaver moving out of their small town of Pinneville, New Jersey and leaving Jessica Darling all to her self. Jessica is a teenager in high school, she goes through a lot of normal things that high school girls all over go through, losing a best friend, trying to fit in with the people she hates most, boys and sex. Its hard to Jessica to communicate to people because no one understands her anymore, until and unsuspecting boy and her start to talk. Before Jessica is a lost, confused girl all on her own.
This book is fun, adventures, unpredictable, unexpected,drama and just flat out exciting. While reading this book, you get to interact with everyone and have a chance sometime to actually connect. The book paints picture in your mind wen your reading it almost as if it were a movie, or even happening to you personally. Jessica's friends aren't much different then people you know or remember everybody knows the girls ("Clueless Crew"), and everyone has a Scotty and a Marcus in their lives. I found myself reading for hours at a time, and getting connected personally to different characters in the book.
Megan McCafferty did a wonderful job expressing the emotions of the character in this book and captured each person. If you like reading journals or comedies this could be a perfect book for you. I believe this book would attract readers in high school more because of how the book can be directly related to your school. Reading this book can help you find who you are when Jessica is finding who she is.
If you like Sloppy Seconds, I recommend you also pick up Second Helpings as well.
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Summary: This is a great book
Review: Once you turn the first page your hooked. Jessica Darling is a witty honor student, who finds herself in a new light. She's your average high school student, and she goes through drama that all of us have faced, at one point or another. The high school she attends seems average, and has all the normal cliques. This novel was one of my favorites. Megan McCafferty goes into the mind of today's teen and comes out with this amazing character. In the book Jessica starts falling for a "Krispy Creme" a boy who, doesn't seem her type. I think anyone who has been through the drama of high school, would enjoy this book. Other books i would reccomend would be Gossip Girl. The both deal with high school girls, going through the many dramas we face.
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