One or Two Things I Learned About Love
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
If this first love is true love, why can’t Hildy hang out with her friends without feeling guilty? Dyan Sheldon takes on the possessive side of summer romance with humor and insight. Hildy has only had two-and-a-half dates in her whole life, and she isn’t counting the half. It’s starting to look as if she’s never going to have a third date, or be kissed, or know a boy who is more than just a friend. Then, on an ordinary day, she meets Connor of the melt-that-ice-cap smile — and a summer that was going to be ordinary as toast turns into Hildy’s summer of love. But love for Hildy is a little more complicated than the songs and movies have led her to believe. It’s not so much girl-meets-boy-and-loses-her-heart as boy-meets-girl-and-loses-his-mind. Part cautionary tale and part romantic comedy, Dyan Sheldon’s wry, diary-style novel weighs in on all ends of the relationship scale in a story of first love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hildy has always wanted a boyfriend, and at 17 she finally meets Connor. "Just being near him made me feel fizzy," she writes in her diary. The mellow middle daughter in a highly dramatic family, Hildy often feels overlooked, and Connor gives her the attention she craves. He texts and calls all the time, but he's also moody, passive-aggressive, and deeply jealous. Hildy's refusal to recognize the seeds of dysfunction in their relationship is often painful, yet Sheldon avoids demonizing Connor. Despite the differing degrees of concern that Hildy's friends express, she's head over heels and is forming her own opinions about love and relationships. Her thankless job at a farm stand, an oppressive summer heat wave, and an array of quirky friends contribute verisimilitude. Sheldon's (The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love) use of the diary form establishes a strong reader-writer bond, resulting in an amusing, empathetic, and intimate story. An honest exploration of the tumultuous emotions that can accompany early romances. Ages 12 up.
