Review: Teenie by Christopher Grant

Teenie by Christopher Grant.

Knopf Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: December 2010
List Price: $16.99
ISBN-13: 9780375861918

Review: Suspenseful, riveting, exciting, unexpected, tragic, heart-breaking… all words to describe Teenie, by Christopher Grant. In this book, a young girl named Martine (people call her "Teenie" as a nickname) has several problems occurring in her life, such as her best friend Cherise and the internet love whom she has never met, the guy of her dreams, and a nasty bully coming after her. On top of all of this, Martine also has to get her grades high enough to attend YASSAP, an exchange program for extremely educated kids. Teenie is a marvelous book for readers who are ages 14 years olds or higher and is a book readers can easily relate to.

Martine begins as a geeky girl who just started high school as freshman. One day, when she decides to dress all pretty for school after getting her braces taken off, the guy she has like for the longest time comes up to her and begins to talk to her. Not only that, but Martine realizes that how she looked and acted before, needs a huge adjustment. So she completely changes her look. Martine has also been working extremely hard to get into this exchange program for YSSAP. So, Martine has to worry about the guy she likes, the way she looks, and her grades (just like any other teenage girl). But then, Martine's best friend Cherise is actually going to go out and meet "Big Daddy", that's what Cherise and Martine call Cherise's online boyfriend. Martine gets nervous for Cherise because so many signs point to danger in a situation like this, so when Chehrise almost got herself into grave danger, Martine loses her best friend. On top of all of this, the guy Martine has liked for the longest time turns out to not be what she expected. And because of this guy, a major bully is after Martine too. Teenie is a fantastic book and describes how Martine gets through all of these situations in her life.

There are some really good aspects to this book, but there are also a few negatives. First, it explains the main characters growth and development very well, and some people may be able to relate to some of the events that take place. The book also contains some lessons to be learned and how Martine uncovers those lessons out the hard way teaches kids these lessons even more. The book is suspenseful and always had me guessing, and it is very riveting. I always looked forward to reading Teenie. Although, some readers should be cautioned because some chapters are very inappropriate for kids under 14 years of age, and there is some foul language in this book. Otherwise, this book is really good.

I rate Teenie with four stars.

Review written by Abby (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Teenie for this review.

Have you read Teenie? How would you rate it?