Standiford’s How to Say Goodbye in Robot is told with an incredibly strong voice, continuously showing little glimmers of hope before quickly enclosing them into darkness once again. This book really is like nothing else.

The girls at school, Bea’s parents, the Night Lights (Myrna was my favourite) – they were all believable. There’s something about these characters that just got to me. When they were mean, I didn’t mind. When they were sad, I still wanted them around. It’s very rare to come acro More...

"If you'd only let me come by myself, none of this would have happened. Having you around makes everything worse.'
She buried her head under her pillow. 'Stop it! You're so cold! You're heartless, you little robot!' The pillow muffled her words, but they still stung.
'I feel things,' I said. 'I'm not a robot!' I stamped my foot and screamed. Then I burst into tears. I touched the wet little drops and held them toward her. 'See, I'm not a robot. This is proof."

Beatrice has gotten used to forming on More...

I had a friend like Jonah. I really related to this book and it surprises me to read the reviews from people who don't and dislike Jonah or Bea. I thought "these types of relationships" (and what is that? I have no idea.) were more common... anyway... I loved this book so much that I'm putting it on my favorites shelf, reserved for things that I would reread at some point, but likely never will.

I thought the writing was great. The two leads were (to me) very likable and unlike most books involvi More...

How to Say Goodbye in Robot starts with a strong voice and weaves into a complicated relationship that was so real it broke my heart. I got why Bea fell into this co-dependency. You have a closed-off boy who shuns everyone else and all of a sudden he wants to be your friend. Somehow that makes you special or really nice or cool or something than stands out from the masses. No matter how un-friend-worthy said boy turns out to be, you would do anything to hold up his volatile world and emotions an More...

I finished reading the last page.
Closed the book.
Got mad & felt sad. Then got mad for feeling sad.

Bea (Robot Girl) & Jonah (Ghost Boy) both were sweet, quirky (in a good way), innocent & naïve, being the way they were. Weaving stories, giving imaginary places names, meaningless things meaning, making the whole story cozy & colorful. Which is why I wanted to read it in the first place. The book even has a few colored pages (black, pink, blue), which makes it stand out even more th More...

Icelandic hairdressers are the happiest people in the world. Unfortunately for Beatrice Szabo, no one knows their secret. And Bea isn't even a hairdresser, let alone living in Iceland in How to Say Goodbye in Robot (2009) by Natalie Standiford.

Bea is used to moving a lot thanks to her father's professional wanderlust. But moving constantly is pretty easy once you stop getting attached to things like houses and gerbils. Finding herself in the familiar position of new girl in town (Baltimore this More...

*4.5

How To Say Goodbye In Robot was one of the single most depressing books I've ever read. By the end, I was crying. Hard. Robot Girl and Ghost Boy found their way into my heart, and I don't think they're leaving any time soon.

I think the biggest reason why this affected me so much was because I relate to the story so much. I've never really experienced anything that happens in the book, but the feelings and emotions of the characters were extremely relatable. I also fell in love with the pers More...

Unexpectedly powerful—-don’t let the pink cover fool you. This story of two lost, eccentric teens finding friendship through a quirky radio show is both enchanting and devastating, charming and tragic. I was laughing hysterically in some parts, crying in others, and totally wrecked by the end. I haven’t been this emotionally unraveled by a book in a while.

But what exactly is it about Robot that leaves such a lasting impression? Is it the heartwarming cast of outlandish radio show callers or the More...

Beatrice and her family have moved from town to town, always to advance her father's academic career. As a result, Bea has taught herself not to get too attached to anyone or anything. When the family lands in Baltimore (home to "Johns Hopkins, the holy grail of pre-med students and biology professors like Dad.") Bee has developed non-attachment to the point where her mother, who seems to be going through a major depression, accuses her of being a robot.

Yet in Baltimore Bea (who christens hersel More...

How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford is a book that will bring you many different emotions while reading it. Standiford explains love and sadness through robot. There are parts when she will fill you with love and happiness but she adds sadness and tears come down your face.
In this book Bea moves to a new town where she meets many different people in her school but only one stands out Jonah. Jonah is known as "ghost boy" and sometimes even Jonah believes he is one. Soon in the stor More...

Maybe it’s because I grew up not far from Ithaca, NY, and went to college in Baltimore that I had fun relating to the places Beatrice Szabo talks about, but nonetheless, I really enjoyed this book. Bea has created her own persona, Robot Girl, to protect herself from the constant moves her family makes and the rocky relationship between her parents. As she begins her senior year at a small private school, she is drawn to Jonas Tate, Ghost Boy, and they form a very strong and complicated relations More...

One of the most beautiful bitter sweet books I've ever read. Many reviews aren't in favor of Jonah's character, but I find him a little charming, pitiful, and mysterious.

CONS:
To be honest, if I were to compare this book to reality, I'd imagine Bea & Jonah as two unstable teens who need to be put in a hospital. Everything they did seemed so, out of this world. I've never heard of midnight radio shows with lonely or lunatic old people communicating with each other. It just seemed so unrealist More...

Now, you probably know by now that YA contemp is totally not my thing. It's just too...real. I also don't believe that a boy and a girl can be friends without one or both of them wanting more, but that's more of a personal moral/family background than mere taste. But I was reading Atlantic Wire's list of summer reads based off YA authors' recommendations, and of course, being the Maggie Stiefvater fangirl I am, I instantly zoned in on what she had listed. In particular, I was caught by the prett More...

All fantastic young adult books are equal, but some are more equal than others.

This is such a book. How to Say Goodbye in Robot stands out heads, shoulders, antennae above the rest as an extremely well-written and superbly-crafted novel. It explores love and loss, families and friendship, our place in the world and a sense of belonging - as well as the connections we make along the way. It's so easy to read that I think readers might miss just how deliberate and necessary everything in the book More...

This is my first favorite new read of 2012.

Beatrice has just moved with her parents to Baltimore, where her father will be a professor at Johns Hopkins, her mother will stay home and act more and more oddly, and Bea will attend a private school with only 40 students in her senior class. Thanks to alphabetical chance, Bea Szabo is seated next to Jonah Tate, the boy that her classmates treat like a ghost. Bea tries to be friendly to him, and Jonah introduces her to a late-night call-in radio show, More...

Morality, let's talk about it:

I know it's probably a double-standard with the whole language thing and all. On principle bad language is never a good thing. And maybe a sign of lack of imagination, bad form?? I do, however, feel that in some cases, to make a character/circumstance believable, it's sometimes needed. This book would be the exception. For me. The language didn't feel gratuitous or forced. Which I love. There was also some under-age drinking going on. Which I don't love. I oppose t More...

It's not romance, exactly -- but it's definitely love." Beatrice, or Robot Girl, knows a thing or two about detachment. Without roots or friends, she grew up always moving from town to town with her parents. Now it's senior year of high school and she's starting from scratch again in Baltimore, Maryland, resigned to coast through the year without growing too fond of people and places she'll just have to say goodbye to in June. Then she meets Jonah the Ghost Boy, the one whose classmates held a m More...

How to Say Goodbye in Robot is a contemporary young adult novel about a pair of oddball high schoolers. Beatrice moves to a new town and meets an outcast named Jacob who has been called Ghost boy by his classmates for years because of his strange behavior. They share a love for oddball late night radio and although are never involved romantically have a link and a true friendship that is unusual. Beatrice frequently has to decide between living a normal teen existence and her strange friend Jaco More...

Blah. You'd think by the clever title and bright pink cover, it'd be about a geeky computer engineering girl who moonlights as a superhero. Actually, there's nothing geeky about this, the only "robot" in this book is the Robot nickname Beatrice's mom gives her by being an emotionless piece of scrap metal.

Setting up your protagonist to be a robot almost automatically means they're going to be hard to relate to. I understand Beatrice's constant moves because of her dad's job (he's a university pr More...

One of my favorite things about this book was the fact that, while it was about a teenage boy and a teenage girl, it wasn't about dating. It was about friendship; namely, those flash-in-the-pan friendships that you know you'll remember for years after they end. In this way, it reminded me a little of Sara Zarr's Sweethearts.

I have to hand it to Natalie Standiford for her beautiful prose and the delicate way in which she handled Bea's relationship with Jonah. It was equally beautiful and heartbre More...

Honestly I was just browsing the NEW BOOKS in the young adult section at the library and came across this book. I have heard nothing about the book itself or the author. Usually, I don't stand a chance with books unknown to me but following my instincts I checked it out.

While, reading I was sure this was a two star book, with the flat plot and undeveloped characters, and unusual situations it just seemed that way. But, soon it all turned upside down. There was certainly an invisible source that More...

There are certain books that you read over a long period of time. You can easily put it down, then return to it with the story fresh in your mind. It doesn’t mean that the book is not good or that the story isn’t memorable, just that you feel as if you could put it aside and it will be there waiting for you patiently. “How To Say Goodbye in Robot” by Natalie Standiford is not one of those books.

I have a list of books that are on my “to-read” list and I picked up this book just this morning after More...

It’s a sweet story with engaging characters to boot.

She considers him to be her favorite person. He fiercely does not want to share her with anyone. Together, they’re in their own world.

Beatrice is not a run of the mill “weird girl.” She’s Vada Sultenfuss cuddling up to the pumpkin stain on the floor odd. Once I saw that, the whole book took on a kind of My Girl slant. Jonah wasn’t Thomas J., though; he was the male version of Vada. The lonely Night Lighters became fellow students in Vada’s poe More...

Bea's family has just moved from Ithaca, NY to Baltimore, MD for her senior year of high school because of her father's professional wanderlust. Unable to cope with the most recent move, Bea's mother begins a descent into unstabledome that begins to break apart their family. On several occassions, she lashes out at Bea, calling her a robot for not showing an outward emotional reaction to minutiae, such as the death of a neighbor's gerbil. Not expecting to form any deep emotional ties to people i More...

First off-to set people strait-this book is not about robots or anything sci-fi; it’s about love but not rmance because Bea and Jonah are good friends. (If you think Bea and Jonah shared a romantic relationship then you’re probably like the rest of Canton High.) How to Say Goodbye in Robot is the bleak story of one unique friendship, a late night talk show, and too many goodbyes.
Bea and Jonah are different. Bea is the “stone child” who is slightly depressed about her parents and is tired of adju More...

When new student Bea becomes friends with school outcast Jonas AKA "ghostboy" she has no idea what she's getting herself into. Jonas is by turns fun and different but then moody and distant. She can't really figure him out but she also can't stay away from him.

This book was OK but not really my favorite. Although we are told that Bea and Jonas have many great times together, you don't really get to see it. What I saw was a grumpy, manipulative boy who didn't really appreciate his friend. Most of More...

When I started reading the book I really wanted to like it because I thought Bea was a quirky little character. Unfortunately, I didn't like the story as much as I'd hoped. (I'd give it 2.5 stars if possible)

The main reason for that is that I didn't really understand the relationship between Jonah and Bea, I didn't see what pulled them together - for example I didn't even understand why she would listen to the radio show the least popular and the weirdest guy in school suggested she listen to. F More...

Beatrice Szabo has lived her life moving from one location to the next. Her father, a successful biology professor, has been following his career from college campus to campus with the hopes of moving up in prestige. He has dragged his family along for the ride.

It is Bea's senior year, and they are now settling into Baltimore so he will be able to work at John Hopkins University. Because of all the moving, she has taught herself not to get to close to friends because she is only going to lead to More...

We meet the protagonist, Bea, as she moves into yet another new school and is quickly introduced to Jonah, who through a cruel trick in school got the nickname, Ghost Boy. This fascinates Bea, who refers to our own emotional state in robot references.

Soon we find out that Bea and Jonah have many more things in common, one of which is dealing with broken family histories. In their last year of high school, they bond and cope with their family and school issues by listening and occasionally callin More...