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A Field Guide to High School
Andie has just finished eighth grade and will be starting high school in the fall. The good news: Her super-popular valedictorian big sister, Claire, is graduating and won't be there to put Andie in the shadows. The bad news: Her super-popular valedictorian big sister, Claire, is graduating and won't be there to help her. But Claire hasn't forgotten Andie.
For her little si...more
For her little si...more
Paperback, 144 pages
Published
September 9th 2008
by Delacorte Books for Young Readers
(first published August 28th 2007)
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This book was a different kind of read, but a good one. Andie, a soon-to-be high school freshman receives a book from her new college freshman sister, explaining how to get through her first year at their private high school and describing the cliques, faculty members, and ins and outs of day to day life as a high school student. The field guide itself, written in the sister's ironic voice, is very well-done. Some of the references to older movies and shows resonated more with me, who attended h...more
Nov 02, 2007
Jackie "the Librarian"
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
teen girls
Shelves:
youngadult,
humor
Just what the title says, a field guide to high school, from one sister to another. It's cute, with a very sketchy framing story that on the day Claire leaves for college, she leaves behind a guide to high school that she has written for Andie, her younger sister, starting as a freshman. You get a vague sense of what school was like for Claire. But there's hardly any story here - just advice and a description of all aspects of high school life. As enjoyable a read as it was, it felt like only ha...more
A fun, light, fast read. The body of it actually is what it sounds like, a guide to a posh private high school written like a wilderness guide to flora and fauna, with some narration by the main character and her best friend, who received the guide from her older sister (a recent high school graduate). Entertaining, with lots of cultural references à la the Princess Diaries, Gilmore Girls, etc. Some swearing, but I wasn't really offended.
Andie gets left behind on the morning that her perfect older sister leaves for Yale, and discovers that Claire has left her a gift -- a guide to the private high school that she has just left and that Andie will be entering as a freshman shortly. Claire used an old field guide as the base, and pasted in her own text around the pictures and illustrations. Her guide is full of wise advice and accurate descriptions of the social scene -- defining the various cliques in terms of animals and describi...more
Funny stuff. I accidentally deleted this off my "read" list and am now putting it back on.
Girl finds "field guide to high school" left for her by her older sister who is going off to college while girl herself is slated to enter high school.
References to "trustafarians" and "hiltons" hit home with me, made me laugh lots.
Girl finds "field guide to high school" left for her by her older sister who is going off to college while girl herself is slated to enter high school.
References to "trustafarians" and "hiltons" hit home with me, made me laugh lots.
This is a cute, very slim novel. It is about two sisters. One who is about to enter college and one who is about to enter high school. The same private high school that her brainiac, popular older sister just left. The elder sister has cleverly used an old field guide (for poisonous plants, etc) as a guide to high school. In it she gives advice about types of people her sister will encounter, clubs, classes, teachers, etc. Under 200 pages and broken up into segments this is a super fast-paced re...more
May 04, 2008
Jennifer Wardrip
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
trt-posted-reviews
Reviewed by Jennifer Rummel for TeensReadToo.com
Andie's nervous about starting high school. What if everyone compares her to her super-popular sister and finds her lacking?
Since Claire just graduated, she won't be there to help Andie, but neither will she be there to overshadow her. The day Claire leaves for college, she leaves behind a present for Andie: a field guide to high school.
Inside, she dishes on what not to do, the differences between the cliques, and the knowledge that everyone's in...more
Andie's nervous about starting high school. What if everyone compares her to her super-popular sister and finds her lacking?
Since Claire just graduated, she won't be there to help Andie, but neither will she be there to overshadow her. The day Claire leaves for college, she leaves behind a present for Andie: a field guide to high school.
Inside, she dishes on what not to do, the differences between the cliques, and the knowledge that everyone's in...more
This was incredibly disappointing. There's almost no story at all. It's just the so-called "guide" explaining the ins and outs of some fictional private school. There would be potential for a fun book if anything actually happened, say, the main character started high school and followed (or didn't) the advice in the guide. But instead, it's just a day or two of reading the guide, with occasional comments by the reader in-between sections of the guide. Lame.
This book was an easy read. It was funny to compare to my own experience of high school. (Not much the same at all.) But I kind of felt like the book was a bit pointless. Especially when it came to the end. I turned a page and there was nothing more and I kind of felt like, "Huh." Not a bad read, but nothing really to recommend, either.
A clever idea, but falls a little flat. The sister's field guide is humorous, but shallow. The book is only 2 years old, but a lot of the references feel old already (calling people Toms - those that have 100s of MySpace friends but none in real life...) A quick read and pretty harmless.
This is a cute, quick read. Claire, Andie's big sister is heading off to college, but has left Andie a parting gift.,, A self-written "field guide" to high school. In this guide, Claire reveals all of the secrets of high school life and how to survive.
I took one look at the title and deliberately set out to mock this book. But then it turned out the format was appealingly unique, and I had an awesome time reading it.
Feb 06, 2010
Brooke
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Eighth and Ninth grade students
Cute and Sassy, not bad advice, given to a freshman going to a private high school. Note the list of books and movies about high school in the back of the book.
It was good advice, but didn't really connect to me because I don't go to private school.
Funny, not much of a story line, tells it like it is, but without nasty details.
I was not overly impressed. I did chuckle a few times (hence the 2 stars).
This book is pretty bad. I must say that, personally, I thought the writing was horrible! It's also just plain annoying. i mean i think that i could write it... also im kinda sick of books that talk about popularity being mean and bad (not to say that that isnt a good message... i mean it is: thats something middle school/highschool girls should keep in mind, definetly a good lesson to learn) but there are tons of books like that. anyway this was a really harsh review.. so sorry. hope u find it...more
Short and sweet and pop-culture reference packed.
Funny and sweet.
SM
Andie's getting ready to start high school just as her big sister Claire is heading off for college. Claire hasn't forgotten about her though; she leaves Andie a "guidebook" filled with tips on how to survive her freshman year at the private high school. At times funny, this book doesn't really have much of a plot since it's mainly written in guidebook format. The "message" is that underneath all the posturing that occurs at high school, everyone's the same.
Very clever and compelling! As a teen services librarian, I sometimes think "oh no, not ANOTHER book dissecting high school social structures," but I picked this up because I liked the cover and basically never put it down (it's short and quick). I liked the interplay between what the entries in the guide and what actually happened (as gleaned from the younger sister's comments and reading between the lines).
S'okay, and it's super short. Premise is good: Older (and perfect) sister goes off to college, leaving a book she wrote explaining all the ins and outs of high school for her 14-year-old sister. Full of stereotypes that the author does not successfully turn upside down. I would have liked better if we'd heard more from the younger sister. And Jennifer says she hates the cover, so there you have it ...
A quick and useless book that Claire writes to her sister Andie before she enters 9th grade. It's not without a little humor, but without a true voice, it stalls.
"Hey, Andie. Me again. The truth is, there is no field guide to high school. I made it all up. One of the many annoying things about high school is that everyone has to figure it out for themselves."
"Hey, Andie. Me again. The truth is, there is no field guide to high school. I made it all up. One of the many annoying things about high school is that everyone has to figure it out for themselves."
Nov 03, 2009
Jillian
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Jr. high and up
Shelves:
ya-books
Cute, and very fast read. This quote took my back: "Four years in high school. Will you spend them cool with us? Or as a social loser outcast with her? You decide." Ugh. Glad those days are over.
I'm happy to report that I've read all the recommended YA reads at the back:)
I'm happy to report that I've read all the recommended YA reads at the back:)
It was okay. It's a good description of people and groups in high school, but it didn't really have a plot, in my opinion. I guess I was looking for a little more of a story. I really liked this book, but I wanted more, I suppose.
This summer after graduating from high school, Claire writes a filed guide book about her experince of high school. She gives it to her little sister, Andie, to use as a reference. Andie is just starting high school.
This was an interesting "field guide" from an older sister to help the younger sister get ready for high school. It was an interesting idea, but not as interesting as I would have liked.
kinda cute/funny, but also really slight in content. a super short book that is nothing but notes from an older sister to a younger sister on dealing with day-to-day life in high school. eh.
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Marissa Walsh is a former children's book editor. She is a graduate of Smith College, home to many former, current, and future Girls with Glasses. She lives in New York City and wears a lot of black.
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