Swim the Fly

Swim the fly  by Don Calame

Matt, Sean and Coop, best friends since grade school, always set a goal for themselves for the summer.  This summer the goal is:  to see a real, live girl naked.  While they are doing this, Matt also decides that he wants to swim the 100 yd butterfly – a grueling event for any swimmer, and one Matt will need to really practice to even attempt; but he will impress Kelly, a new girl on his swim team- whose boyfriend also swims the 100 yd fly.  

This is a laugh-out-loud, read-to-anyone-around book.  The extents to which his friends go to help Matt avoid swimming this event are hilarious.  The lengths to which Matt will go to keep his friends from actually seeing Kelly naked while not alerting them to the fact that he is doing just that are outstanding.  When Matt does fall in love, we all cheer.  Vomiting, pooping, possible naked girls- what junior high boy wouldn’t want this book?  Ok what adult male wouldn’t want this book?  Or is that too redundant?  Even the adults in this book are well drawn.

Sexual situations; coarse language; raunchy situations;  ages 13 and up.

Sweethearts

Sweethearts  by Sara Zarr

What is your earliest memory?  Do you remember being 3?  Jennifer does.  

What is your strongest memory?  For Jennifer it was 5th grade.  That was when everyone at school called her “Jennifer Fattifer, and her only friend was Cameron.  

Strong memory-involved bits of flashbacks continue through the book...including some parts of that memory that Jennifer can’t face yet...including some parts that she has never shared with anyone but Cameron. Then things change dramatically - Cameron disappears.  Everyone says he was killed.  

Now flash-forward to when Jennifer is 17.  Jennifer’s mother is remarried and they move- and Jennifer remakes herself into the thin, fun Jenna with the gorgeous football player.  But you know that strong memory?  It keeps coming back in bits and snatches.  Then Cameron reappears, and he says they must face that memory together.  

Sexual and physical abuse; coarse language; ages 14 up

Be More Chill

Be More Chill  by Ted Vizzini

Jeremy, class geek, lusts after girls.  But how can a dweeb like him even approach them? 

With a new "pill"!  The pill is actually a computer device that implants into the brain, telling step-by-step how to score with a girl.  At first, the voice in Jeremy's brain is pretty funny--the reader even agrees with him:  "First we need to fix your clothes, your body odor, and your work-out regime."  It becomes funnier when, as a part of meeting and just being with girls, the voices advises him as he is talking.  Jeremy pulls back words, restates things, and seemingly is listening to a voice in his head.  How could that be?

It becomes unfunny when we remember, and plot for, the single-purpose conquest.  Well,
maybe it's just me being a female and reading this....   Nevertheless, this funny, quirky, great story contains some bad language and some plot twists that could make it problematic for junior high. 

Sexual comments, situations; coarse language; ages 14 up
But it's hilarious!

How to Get Suspended and Influence People

How to Get Suspended and Influence People
by Adam Selzer

14-year-old Leon sarcastically narrates the events that result when he decides to make an avant-garde sex education movie as an assignment for his "gifted and talented" class. Leon's video is weird but comforting, irrational but informative...and very quickly, banned at school.

Quick, quirky and fun, Leon and his classmates address some common contradictions found in public school where masturbation is often called normal but more often considered vulgar, where nudity may be classical but still censored, and where kids and adults will never see eye-to-eye.

This fast-paced novel will appeal to middle-readers who wonder what "normal" is and if they will ever be it. No violence, some cuss words, frequent references to nudity, body parts, and all the other things that absolutely fascinate 14-year-old boys. The book has a few on-page kisses, but everyone stays fully clothed, even when the garage blows up. Ages 12 to 16.