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Touch

2.91 of 5 stars 2.91 · rating details · 628 ratings · 128 reviews

What "really" happened at the back of the bus?

Did they, or didn't they?

Did she, or didn't she?

"Something" happened to fourteen-year-old Maisie Willard--something involving her three friends, all boys. But their stories don't match, and the rumors spin out of control. Then other people get involved . . . the school, the parents, the lawyers. The incident at the back of the...more

Hardcover, 272 pages

Published June 16th 2009 by Harper Teen (first published June 1st 2009)

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Apr 22, 2010 Madeline rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: assigned-reading, kids-and-young-adult

I must be getting tired of YA literature, because this one just didn't do it for me. Or maybe I'm still recovering from the emotional slap in the face that was Speak. Either way, I just wasn't a fan.

It was mostly the main character - although unreliable narrators can be good in a story, I didn't feel that way about Maisie. She didn't just lie to the other characters in the book, she lied to the reader. She gives us her account of an event, spends the story vehemently insisting that it's true, a...more I must be getting tired of YA literature, because this one just didn't do it for me. Or maybe I'm still recovering from the emotional slap in the face that was Speak. Either way, I just wasn't a fan.

It was mostly the main character - although unreliable narrators can be good in a story, I didn't feel that way about Maisie. She didn't just lie to the other characters in the book, she lied to the reader. She gives us her account of an event, spends the story vehemently insisting that it's true, and then at the end is like, "Nope, here's how it really went down." I realize that this was done on purpose, what with the book's repeating "what happened and what didn't, nature of truth etc etc" theme, but it was still annoying. And, I'll be honest: Maisie was kind of a bitch. She's mean to everyone, especially her stepmom Joan, who according to Maisie is a self-centered idiot who is evil personified. Had the story been told by someone other than a petulant teenager, we probably would have gotten to see Joan as she really was - a slightly dim but well-meaning individual who genuinely wants the best for her stepdaughter. But since Maisie's telling the story, Joan gets referred to repeatedly as "the Wicked Witch" and is constantly mocked for everything she says and does. I started feeling sorrier for her than I did for Maisie, and wished Joan would just haul off and smack Maisie in her smart mouth. I mean, for God's sake, she baked Maisie a cake and the girl's response is literally, "Cool. Can I go now?"

The other characters aren't much better. The core relationship, the one that sets up the story, is this lifelong friendship Maisie's had with three boys: Shakes, Chris, and Kevin. Shakes gets the majority of the attention, by which I mean he gets to be two-dimension on occasion. Chris and Kevin are barely even people - they're more like cardboard cutouts that the other characters have to be careful not to knock over. Know how much personality they get? One is classified by Maisie as "funny", and the other gets "nice." I honestly could not tell you which was which. I don't know about you, but when I think of friends I've had since childhood, a lot more adjectives come to mind than just "nice" or "funny." And that, I think, is the main problem I had with this book: we're supposed to believe that these four kids had a great, wonderful friendship that was rudely torn apart when the one girl in the group grew breasts. But I never really understood why these people were friends, or saw them doing anything that demonstrated this awesome bond they supposedly had. And Maisie repeating over and over that they were her best friends in the whole wide world didn't do much to convince me.

I'm sorry, Francine Prose. After your book, Reading Like a Writer, rocked my world, I expected so much from this story. Maybe too much. I still think you're awesome, though.

Read for: Social Justice in Young Adult Literature(less)

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Nov 27, 2009 Nian rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2009

I felt like I was in stuck in some sort of time loop thing (like Sam and Dean were in a previous episode of Supernatural, if you know what I'm talking about) the entire time I was reading. The story jumps from all different points of time, back and forth, back again, and so forth. Maisie's recount of the "bus incident" is like a scratched DVD with a mind of its own: it plays the first scene, then replays itself, but with an added twist. So each time Maisie tells her story, it's another version o...more

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Dec 09, 2009 Jackie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: coming-of-age, friendship, identity, relationships, school, teen-angst, ya-fiction

Four friends...friends since preschool see their lives and relationship disintegrate as they reach their teens. Kevin, Chris, Shakes (Edward), and Maisie are dealing with hormonal angst when they start high school. Shakes and Maisie draw closer than friendship dictates and their relationship takes on a new level. Whether spurred on by jealously, hormones, or peers, Chris and Kevin assault Maisie on the bus. They are enamored with her 'big boobs' as Maisie calls them, and they ask to touch them....more

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Mar 04, 2009 Jennifer Wardrip rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: trt-posted-reviews

Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Sorry, there's no cover art available yet for TOUCH by Francine Prose, but I recommend it as a good read no matter what they decide to do with the cover. Prose is the author of such YA titles as AFTER and BULLYVILLE, and TOUCH is sure to please her previous fans and help create new ones.

TOUCH is the story of trauma and its ability to manipulate the truth. Maisie has three very good friends - Shakes, Chris, and Kevin. They've been f...more Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

Sorry, there's no cover art available yet for TOUCH by Francine Prose, but I recommend it as a good read no matter what they decide to do with the cover. Prose is the author of such YA titles as AFTER and BULLYVILLE, and TOUCH is sure to please her previous fans and help create new ones.

TOUCH is the story of trauma and its ability to manipulate the truth. Maisie has three very good friends - Shakes, Chris, and Kevin. They've been friends since preschool, and even though this friendship between one girl and three guys may seem strange to some, it totally works for them. That is, it works until the year Maisie goes to live with her mom and stepdad.

After a bitter divorce that started with Maisie's mother leaving her husband to find a different life, Maisie has lived with her dad and Joan, his new wife. Uncomfortable with her stepmother, Maisie decides to spend her 8th-grade year living with her mother in Wisconsin. As with many such experiments, Maisie learns the grass is not always greener on the other side, and she returns to live with her father when the school year is over.

Things would probably have just gone back to normal, except while living in Wisconsin, Maisie has blossomed as a young woman. She returns feeling the same but looking a bit different. She has boobs. Her three childhood friends have changed a bit, as well. They now have a young man's appreciation for things like boobs. Although they try to resume their friendship as before, it is strained at best.

Maisie and Shakes have always had a special bond. When school starts in the fall, they find themselves boarding the bus first. As the only two people riding for a good twenty minutes, they head to the back seat. Amazingly, they are able to remain seated there even when the seniors climb aboard.

As the weeks pass, Maisie and Shakes stumble across a way to pass the time before the other students are picked up. It begins with experimental kissing and soon turns into twenty-minute make out sessions. They are very careful to time their groping to end just before others begin to board the bus, but one day they are caught. It is quite a shock for everyone, but especially for Chris and Kevin, who never thought about Maisie as girlfriend material.

Once the secret is out, the friendship takes a turn that shocks the entire school community. Maisie has become the subject of cruel gossip and speculation because she seems to have allowed the three boys to stray beyond the bounds of decency. What really happened in the backseat of the bus? Can Maisie really remember things objectively, and can her life ever return to normal?

Francine Prose takes readers into the mind of a confused young girl. Maisie is trying to justify her actions and the decisions that led to those actions. She battles with her angry feelings toward her friends, her parents and stepparents, her fellow classmates, and herself.

Coping with trauma and moving on are the central issues of TOUCH. Teens will no doubt see a bit of themselves and also their peers when they read about Maisie's ordeal.
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Jan 15, 2013 Aube D'été Holgate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, conspiracy, depressing-books, family-focus, kinda-sad-but-gets-better, mysterious, revenge, sadness, secrets

I have so many feelings about this book it is very difficult to sort them out!

First of all, this book represents the differences every child see once they reach that milestone of change. Every boy recognizes the signs within theirselves: changing voice, masculinity, growth spurt, raging hormones, and girls. Every girl sees with fresh eyes once she reaches her milestone: that her life is changed and it's up to her to make it for better or worse.

In Maisie's case, for worse. She first has trouble...more

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Jan 30, 2011 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

"Touch" takes on the subject of adolescence in today's society. Francine Prose effectively conveys the confused feelings our teenagers have to face in this modern culture. Maisie, the protagonist, finds herself in a web of drama, distortions, half-truths, and pressure from family, the law, the school's administration, her peers, and her once childhood friends. While having to deal with this, she also must sort through her own personal confusion of feelings that the physical changes in her body c...more

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Oct 22, 2010 Angela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Many women around the world have been harassed in some sort of way. It may be forms of verbal harassment, or cyber harassment but a lot of harassment against women is sexual.Francine Prose captures the emotional and difficult journey of a fourteen year old girl who gets sexually harassed by her three best guy friends at the back of a school bus.

The story starts off with Maisie, the fourteen year old main character, telling a repetitive dream she is having to her therapist. Maisie gives her the...more

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Nov 09, 2009 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: washyarg

It’s freshman year and something happened to Maisie on the school bus. Stepmom is suing the school district, Maisie is seeing a counselor, and no one at school is speaking to Maisie, which is actually an improvement over the jiggling coins and drawings on the bathroom wall. What really happened is unclear, even to Maisie, except for one thing – she has lost her best friend.
This is a story of growing up, changing bodies, changing attitudes, how confusing emotions can lead to mistakes, and how l...more

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Oct 10, 2009 Teen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audience-girl, sexual-abuse, sexual-assault, sexual-harassment, audience-m-s

Maisie is 14 and her best friends are, and have been since preschool, boys: Kevin, Chris and Shakes. Maisie lives with her dad and stepmom, who she has battles with daily, so for her 8th grade year Maisie decides to live with her mom and her new stepdad. By the time she returns for her 9th grade year her biggest hope is that everything will still be the same with her friends, but things have changed, especially with Maisie’s body: she now has large breasts. The boys don’t know how to treat her a...more

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Aug 31, 2009 E. Anderson rated it 5 of 5 stars

This distressing, sad, but ultimately hopeful novel captured me instantaneously. Maisie's story is unfortunately similar to things we hear of happening at high schools around the country, but what I love about this particular telling is that it captures Maisie as a person, not simply as a victim. Having spent all her life three boys for best friends, Maisie never expected these boys to betray her in this terrible way. Returning from a year out west with her mother, she's come home hoping that he...more

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Jan 02, 2010 Rakisha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-fiction

Maisie had 3 BFFs since preschool, and they happened to be boys. They used to be really tight until returned from a year-long visit with her mother sporting D-cup breasts. Maisie was no longer a kid, and neither were her 3 male buddies. Confusion, raging hormones, and peer pressure cause a rift in their friendships. It becomes wider when Maisie becomes more than just friends with Shakes, one fourth of her crew. The two other boys feel left out, and take their revenge by forcing Maisie to allow t...more

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Feb 06, 2011 Savannah (Books With Bite) rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is hard to read. We go through so many emotional rides with the characters and her feelings. After such a dramatic event Masie just froze. Lines were crossed where they shoudn't have been and major trust was broken. Despite everything, Masie was strong. She stood with her held high and did the right thing. I was sadden by the events in the story and how her best friends betrayed her. I couldn't even imagine going through what she went through. Especially with all the extra harassment f...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Kenya Liggons rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Are the boys who assaulted you present in the courtroom?" "Your Honor, I object to counsel's use of the word assault." "Objection sustained." "Are the boys who molested you present in the courtroom?" "Objection,Your Honor. Molested is inflammatory." -Chapter one Page 1

This book was fascinating and unbelievable! I thought "Touch" was a great book. Teenage girl Massie is now a freshman in her school. She is a freshman along with three of her best friends, these best friends aren't girls, they are...more "Are the boys who assaulted you present in the courtroom?" "Your Honor, I object to counsel's use of the word assault." "Objection sustained." "Are the boys who molested you present in the courtroom?" "Objection,Your Honor. Molested is inflammatory." -Chapter one Page 1

This book was fascinating and unbelievable! I thought "Touch" was a great book. Teenage girl Massie is now a freshman in her school. She is a freshman along with three of her best friends, these best friends aren't girls, they are boys. Their names are Kevin, Chris, and Shakes. Massie is not the same Massie that she was when it was years ago when she was little. She has matured physically and mentally. Her breast have gotten larger, and her face has changed, she is still the same person, she is just maturing into a young lady. It was like morning time, and Massie and Shakes ended up kissing. This kissing wasn't just kissing they were like tonguing down each other (Making out). They have done this a couple more times, and the other two boys have caught them in the act. Their whole mood and attitude towards Massie has changed, because they are now jealous that it wasn't them. They ended up touching Massie, and Massie thought it was just all fun and games until Massie hears all these awful rumors. One of the rumors was that she paid them to touch her, because she was basically desperate for attention. Then they said she was also paying the other boys in the school to do it. Massie doesn't wanna get her friends in trouble, so she starts telling lie after lie, and it all becomes suspicious. Will the truth finally be revealed? When the truth is revealed, what is gonna happen to Massie?

First off, I just thought this book was great! I think Massie was my favorite until she started lieing.... Like what did she have to lie for ? She should have just told the truth, but I feel like if Massie kept up that animosity up for so long, it would be a great book and it was, it was a great book. I think this story has given me another reason to stay away from boys... I feel like even though they are your best friends, you shouldn't get too close with them.. What I didn't understand was, why she was making out with Shakes... What kind of name is shakes??? When I picture these boys, I picture them to have messed up hair cuts, and dirty baggy clothes. I think this book is appropriate for my age group, because it teaches a whole moral lesson, it teaches young girls and young boys what happens in the real world, and life is not about rainbows and stars.. I just think this got too out of hand, I think the whole situation was just blown out of proportion.... *Spoiler* "At first I was nervous about telling the truth, especially now that I finally knew what the truth was.....................................................................................................................................I still believe that there's such a thing as the truth, and I still never try to lie......... I was, every time I told and retold the story of how some boys, my former best friends, touched me on the bus. " I mean that ending was just excellent! I think the author did a great job, and I look forward to reading more of her books, because this has left me speechless. The one thing I had was so many questions, it was like every chapter was just leaving me confused. I guess that's what the author wanted for her book. It was a great read, and I recommend this book to everyone that is becoming a young adult, it will teach a lot!(less)

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Aug 02, 2011 Christy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I heard Prose interviewed on NPR a few weeks ago talking about this book and thought I would give it a shot.

The short novel takes place in a small town in Philadelphia and tells the story of 14 year-old Maise and her 3 best friends (all boys). When Maise comes back after a year away and a teenage growth spurt, she is surprised to discover that her friends don't treat her quite the same as before. Written in first person, Prose does a decent job of getting into the mind of a 14-year old girl and...more

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Nov 07, 2009 AnnaBnana rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-fiction

Unhappy living with her dad and evil stepmother, Maisie leaves for the school year to live with her mom in Wisconsin. She wonders if it might be a mistake to leave the 3 boys she's been best friends with since preschool, but ultimately decides they'll always be friends as they always have been. Turns out Wisconsin isn't anything Maisie hoped for though, and as soon as the bell rings to let out for summer, Maisie heads back home. Problem is, when Maisie left, she was just one of the guys, but whe...more

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Mar 21, 2010 Kimberleigh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sad-stories, read-in-2010

I read this book in one sitting partially because it was a quick read and partially because I just had to know what would happen. Maisie Marbury's three best friends are Kevin, Chris, and Shakes... all boys. They've been best friends since preschool. But when Maisie goes away for a year to visit her mom in Wisconsin, she comes back and they're not so close anymore. Everyone has changed, and Maisie tries to deny it, but she knows nothing will ever be the same. Especially when one day, at the bac...more

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Nov 10, 2009 Kat rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya-fiction, realistic-fiction

What really happened that day in the back of the school bus? This story is tragically realistic, and it is written well for its intended age group. It can be hard to find something for junior high and early high school students on a tough topic like inappropriate touching or sexual assault without being a full-on troubling teen novel about rape, incest, or other disturbing sexual violence. While its important to hear the voices of female victims of any type of assault, "Touch" tells a more subtl...more What really happened that day in the back of the school bus? This story is tragically realistic, and it is written well for its intended age group. It can be hard to find something for junior high and early high school students on a tough topic like inappropriate touching or sexual assault without being a full-on troubling teen novel about rape, incest, or other disturbing sexual violence. While its important to hear the voices of female victims of any type of assault, "Touch" tells a more subtle story that unfortunately may be much more common and easily-dismissed than we might think.
Maisie has always been best friends with Shakes, Chris, and Kevin. It never seemed to matter before that she was the only girl. They did everything together, up until Maisie left for a year to spend 8th grade with her mother out-of-state. She returns for 9th grade to find that her old friends can't seem to see past her newly-developed chest, and she now feels painfully alone and alienated by her own body. What initially begins as consensual cuddling with one of her old friends on the morning bus ride transforms into an ugly incident of unwanted chest-groping from all three of her so-called best friends, with subsequent spreading of dirty rumors about her around school. Maisie feels confused and hurt and unable to distinguish between truth and lie as she recounts her story. After a witness tells the principal, Maisie's overzealous stepmother quickly jumps in, ever so eager to sue the school and anyone else she can blame. Between Maisie's stepmother, her therapist, the taunting kids at school, and Maisie's underlying feelings of betrayal yet lingering loyalty to her old friends, Maisie tries to piece together the events that led to what really happened on the bus. I was impressed with how Prose was able to take a really complicated and multi-layered issue and present it as an authentic-sounding yet simple narrative of a young freshman. Maisie's realizations about herself as a victim and the people around her ring true as life lessons learned the tragic way by someone still coming of age, but she pulls through with a realistic yet admirable amount of strength. (less)

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Aug 13, 2009 Alex rated it 2 of 5 stars

Touch has a really good premise. I like the description, reading about the mystery of what happened that fateful day on the bus. But... the book fell flat for me. The description on the cover flap is the high point- the actual novel is more meh.

The writing is good. It sounds young, it's clipped with short sentences, but that's the point (I'm assuming). Maisie is, after all, only 14. She's not some wise-old adult. She doesn't have a mature voice, and that's fine. Although sometimes, Maisie would...more Touch has a really good premise. I like the description, reading about the mystery of what happened that fateful day on the bus. But... the book fell flat for me. The description on the cover flap is the high point- the actual novel is more meh.

The writing is good. It sounds young, it's clipped with short sentences, but that's the point (I'm assuming). Maisie is, after all, only 14. She's not some wise-old adult. She doesn't have a mature voice, and that's fine. Although sometimes, Maisie would come to some revelation, and would try to be wise. I didn't think that really worked, but it was only a few times, so it wasn't too bad.

The characters aren't bad. But they're not all that interesting either. Maisie tries to be tough- and for the most part, she handles everything pretty well. But she's immature and tends to wallow in her pity. She's somewhat close-minded, as she can't seem to understand that her step-mother isn't really all that bad and actually is trying to help in her own way. (Or at least, I think so.) Maisie has 3 childhood friends, all boys. Two of them aren't very important and don't have any personality but that they can be rude and well, like young teenage boys. Shakes, on the other hand, is distinguished by the fact that he has some slight problems. He doesn't walk properly, he has to think before he speaks, he shakes and twitches, which is where his nickname came from.

The ending was a split between predictable and unexpected. Mostly predictable, although some things were a surprise. I guess though, that's life. The ending is realistic and resolved, but it doesn't feel complete. I was a bit put out at the ending. But then again, I had to force myself to finish this book. I feel like there was supposed to be this major twist- Maisie figuring out the truth- but it was so obvious it was coming, that I wasn't very interested or stunned.

Overall, Touch is decent. But it's by no means amazing. It's a tale of a girl who maybe something happened to on the back of a bus, and the discovery of figuring out the truth. Read if you find that you're interested in the description, but don't get your hopes up all that high, is what I say. The novel isn't nearly captivating enough to live up to the description.(less)

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Sep 30, 2011 Olivia rated it 2 of 5 stars

The book "Touch" by Francine Prose is set in the life of freshmen Maisie Willard. When Maisie is sexually harassed by her so called "three best friends" Chris, Kevin, and Shakes, Maisie's life is turned upside down. Being dragged through court, a wicked stepmother's lectures, therapy, and the constant bullying at school, Maisie has nowhere to turn to. Her stepbrother Josh Darling is a pain in her rear-end, her so called mother makes virtually no effort to be apart of her life, and her father is...more

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Jun 06, 2011 Bookseller Cate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although I'm a longtime fan of Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer, this is actual the first piece of her fiction that I've read. Giving how much (both qualitatively and quantitatively) Prose thinks about the writing of fiction, I was expecting something interesting and I was not disappointed.

Prose has created a wonderful narrator in Maisie Willard, not so much in her voice (I've read other YA narrators that frankly blow Maisie out of the water for voice) but rather in her ability to create...more

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Mar 24, 2011 Melissa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own

Something happened to Maisie when she and 3 other boys, her best friends, were at the back of the bus during a school trip. But none of them are telling the truth. Soon, the story explodes and parents, the school and lawyers are called in. It becomes news and everyone’s lives are changed.

Touch is a good book for young teenagers who want to be introduced to more “dramatic” genres of YA fiction, sub-genres involving molestation, rape, and so on and so forth. The subject matter here is on molestati...more

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Mar 27, 2010 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: realistic-problem-novels, young-adult

Touch is an intense book that looks at a problem that is often overlooked in many junior and senior high schools. As a junior high school teacher, I have several students who I know have had "friends" inappropriately touch them, and this book tells of a girl, Maisie, who learns something important from her experience. After coming back to the town she lived in as a child, Maisie is grown up...she has changed and her three best friends--boys--notice. One day on the bus, she is touched and that is...more

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Jul 20, 2011 Eryn rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Another fairly good novel by Francine Prose. I like how well she managed to mirror a situation so closely to real life - the characters seemed authentic. However, she leaves every story with very little in the way of a resolution. Something this important, a good lesson for kids to understand as they grow older and begin to develop into the little adults they want to be, should not be done so lightly. The character made a bigger problem of her little lie than the fact that three boys fondled her...more

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Sep 18, 2009 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Maisie has always been best friends with 3 boys. When she moves away for one year and then returns, puberty has hit and Maisie has grown large breasts. As soon as she meets up with her friends after that year, she discovers that their relationships have changed. When she begins a tentative romance with Shakes, her other two friends discover it and ask if they can touch her breasts like he does. After this traumatic experience, Maisie finds herself telling different tales about what actually happ...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Maddie Andrews rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Touch" by Francine Prose reveals the adolescent and relationship issues that our society has today. Maisie has three best friends that harassed her in the back of the bus. Each time she told the story it was like a scratched disc replaying but saying different things each time. Everyday they spent together before the incident everything felt different, as if there friendship was withering away. Shakes, Maisie's favorite out of the three, started to become more than best friends with her. He sta...more

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Sep 13, 2009 Sarai rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-fiction, young-adult-fiction

Maisie has been friends with Shakes, Chris, and Kevin since they were in elementary school. But after returning from a year living with her father, Maisie has filled out and her friendship with the boys becomes strained. Then a story gets out about how the boys touched Maisie on the back of the bus, and suddenly her step-mother has hired a lawyer, Maisie has to see a shrink, and school and her friendships will never be the same. But what really happened on the back of the bus?

This story revolves...more

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Oct 22, 2009 Kate rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-read-2009, fiction, young-adult, women-s-issues, 2-star-reads

Touch is the story of 14 year old Maisie, who's 3 best friends are boys. One day on the back of the bus, they touch her inappropriately and thus touches off a saga as she attempts to remember 'what really happened' and deal with regular life in the process.

Prose's book doesn't stack up to another great teen drama I recently read, Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak. The book is a quick read and not bad, but it doesn't grip you in a way it should. As a protagonist, Maisie is not a terribly sympathetic...more

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Jun 14, 2010 Rhonda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, read-in-2010, young-adult

This was an interesting book, it takes a look at a teenage girl's life and how her body changes and how that affects who she is becoming. Masie has always been just one of the guys along with her three best guy friends from preschool.
Life gets harder for Maisie as she has to deal with the pressure of step parents and she is not fond of her new step mother so she moves to Wisconsin for a year with her mother. When she comes back home to her father and three best friends she realizes that her bod...more

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Oct 12, 2011 6thMyriamC is currently reading it

The touch is a interresting book im berly starting to read.wat happend in the back of the bus. maissei a 14th year gurl the got touch by her 3 friends. the her parents acusse them for inapopropriately touch maisie ..her 3 best friends. she dot wahat her friends to see them in jail.When the school find out about it everyone star talking about many diferents way in 3 storys told the maisie dindt wat to tell the true .so denied everythng but then wen she went to court wit her 2 friens ,.The court w...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Katie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Nobody knows what really happened that day on the school bus. Not even Maisie knows the truth of what happened to her anymore. The boys, her former best friends, say one thing. Maisie tells a different story. Who is actually telling the truth? Are either of them telling the truth or only their version of the truth?

I don't have a whole lot to say about Touch. It was a very fascinating story about how the someone can tell what they think is the truth while in reality they don't really know what ha...more

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About Francine Prose

Francine Prose (born in 1947 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American novelist. She graduated from Radcliffe College in 1968, and received a Guggenheim fellowship in 1991. She has sat on the board of judges for the PEN/Newman's Own Award, and her novel Blue Angel, a satire about sexual harassment on college campuses, was a finalist for the National Book Award. She is now teaching at Bard College.

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Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

Anne Frank: The Book, the Life, the Afterlife

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Trivia About Touch

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Quotes from Touch

“I'm out of the equation, an innocent bystander at the major love affair Joan is having with Joan” — 4 people liked it

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avg rating	preview: Touch Goodreads rating: 2.91 (628 ratings)
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Touch

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