Big Mouth & Ugly Girl
by Joyce Carol Oates
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Read in January, 2004
Joyce Carol Oates, Big Mouth and Ugly Girl (Harper, 2002)
Okay, I admit it. I'm a sucker for books like this. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl into pickle. Boy gets girl out of pickle. Boy gets pickle into girl. They all live happily ever after.
Now turn that formula on its head.
Big Mouth is Matt Donaghy, class clown. Popular guy, suddenly arrested one afternoon as a suspect in a bomb scare. Ugly Girl is Ursula Riggs, captain of the basketball team, anything but popular, a witne...more
Okay, I admit it. I'm a sucker for books like this. Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl into pickle. Boy gets girl out of pickle. Boy gets pickle into girl. They all live happily ever after.
Now turn that formula on its head.
Big Mouth is Matt Donaghy, class clown. Popular guy, suddenly arrested one afternoon as a suspect in a bomb scare. Ugly Girl is Ursula Riggs, captain of the basketball team, anything but popular, a witne...more
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When sixteen-year-old Matt is falsely accused of threatening to blow up his high school and his friends turn against him, an unlikely classmate comes to his aid.
“Big Mouth” is the nickname Matt Donaghy has earned after he is overheard joking about blowing up the school. When he is questioned by police about this remark and then suspended from school, none of his friends know what to make of it, nor do they rush to vouch for his character. “Ugly Girl” is what big, basketball-team-capt...more
“Big Mouth” is the nickname Matt Donaghy has earned after he is overheard joking about blowing up the school. When he is questioned by police about this remark and then suspended from school, none of his friends know what to make of it, nor do they rush to vouch for his character. “Ugly Girl” is what big, basketball-team-capt...more
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
YA readers
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl shows that Joyce Carol Oates is just as capable at writing young adult fiction as she is writing adult fiction. This is the story of two teenagers who become unlikely friends. Matt Donaghy(Big Mouth) is fairly popular, a good student, known for his sense of humor and playwriting until he is overheard jokingly saying he's going to blow up the school. He ends up being hauled out of class by the police and rumours begin to fly wildly. The only person who stands ...more
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Read in June, 2008
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Oates delivers a complex, punchy, true-to-life work of art with this novel. The two teenaged protagonists learn so much from each other -- like when and why to care (or not) about what other people say or do (and it's not all black and white), and how and why to let people in (or not). The plot is intense and completely believable, both literally and emotionally. A lot like Stargirl...but not. Masterfully written and thoroughly enjoyable to read.
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Read in April, 2008
Young adult book: Makes you think about choices made in high school & who your friends really are... also how certain choices can change your life... "big mouth" is joking about bombing the school - gets overheard & reported & even though he is proved innocent, it changes his life forever..."ugly girl" is the only one that stands by him through it all even though they weren't friends prior to that event..
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Two misfits find each other through a devastating misunderstanding that turns a whole town ugly and defensive. With reference to the Columbine tragedy, the morals of this story could be for every youth to follow, as from such...great things can, and often do, happen.
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recommends it for:
Anyone, but especially teenagers
I liked the whole concept presented here: follow your own heart, and be true to yourself. This is what two high school students do, and in the process, they find a warm, close friendship. It also very much depicts the social challenges teenagers face.
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This book is very original. The story of an outcast and an insider become outcast who become friends, not caring what anyone else thinks. It is interesting to realize how false accusations and rumors can really hurt people's reputations and lives.
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Read in October, 2007
recommends it for:
high school age and above
I read this for a teachers as readers book club. It was a good book and I zipped through it. I liked the way that the character development was done in this book. It would be a good way to teach this writing skill to high school students.
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i thought it was a very funny book and interesting because i learned that two people who would seem like they never belong can belong to one another. and you shouldn't make a joke about blowing up the school
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Read in July, 2007
The material is dark, but it's interesting to see how a "joke" taken out of context can have such extreme consequences. This is another book I read with a sense of trepidation.
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This was recommended by a student of mine...a while ago. I thought it sounded interesting, and always intended to read it, but as yet have not got around to doing so.
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Read in December, 2007
recommends it for:
my brother
There were only a few trite moments in this coming of age story. Oates tackled issues big and small, individual and universal. I will be reading more of her.
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Read in July, 2007
I had to teach this book during summer school. Oates says "silky-haired golden retriever" so much that I think it's a fetish.
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
teenagers and people who like teenagers
This YA book by Oates is surprisingly YA-ish--and I mean that in a good way, not a snobby one.
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Read in October, 2007
I think many of my students will love it, but I got bored pretty quickly and ended up skimming.
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This is one of my most recent reads that I picked up at a Salvation Army that I liked a lot!
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Very well-written, especially for young adult lit, but never really goes anywhere.
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I absolutely love this author, but had a lot of trouble getting into this one.
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