Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
AN ALA BEST BOOK FOR YOUNG ADULTS • Study up for a tale that perfectly captures the ridiculous, tumultuous, and sometimes heartbreaking truths about high school.
“A fresh, genuinely funny picture of an earnest yet hapless teen.”—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“Lubar writes in a laugh-out-loud style about the problems of a teenager figuring out high school. . . A great read for teens looking for a laugh.”—VOYA
Freaks and bullies. Classes and crushes. This is high school.
Starting high school is never easy, but could there be a worse time for Scott’s mother to announce she’s pregnant? Scott decides high school would be a lot less overwhelming if it came with a survival manual, so he begins to write one for his future sibling. Meanwhile, he’s trying his best to capture the attention of Julia, the freshman goddess. While he tries to find his place in the confusing world of high school, win Julia’s heart, and keep his sanity, Scott will be recording all of the details for his sibling’s—and your—enjoyment.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As much an exercise in wordplay and narrative structure as it is a rendition of Freshman year woes, Lubar's (Dunk) story starring Scott Hudson, a brain from a blue-collar background, contains many stock characters and situations associated with high-school initiation. In his first few weeks at Zenger High, Scott gets smacked by Seniors, robbed of his lunch money, ignored by the girl of his dreams and ousted out of his position of youngest member of his family when his mother breaks the news she is pregnant. On the bright side, he has a great Honors English teacher, who encourages Scott to join the newspaper staff and introduces him to some interesting literary devices that Scott practices throughout the novel. Speaking in "Tom Swifties" (" 'I lost my wrists,' Tom said offhandedly") couplets ("Me dance?/ Fat chance") and a few different points of view, Scott reports sports news for the school newspaper and, in a series of journal entries, lends advice to his unborn baby brother. While the book does offer some humorous moments and real-life drama (such as when an unpopular classmate attempts suicide), it strains too hard to be clever. Most readers will breathe a sigh of relief when the gimmicks start to fade as Scott tries his hand at conventional journalism. Ages 12-up.
