Julie and Me . . . and Michael Owen Makes Three

Julie & Me #1

by Alan Gibbons

The day Terry sees Julie in the gym for the first time is the day of the England vs Romania match—the latest of the Great English Disasters—and the day his father announces that he's going to walk out. Things couldn't be worse. Only they could. Gorgeous Julie is a Liverpool fan. Even if he could summon up the courage to speak to her, Terry has a problem. This is Terry's diary as he tries to cope simultaneously with his first love, the unexpected break-up of  his parent's marriage, and the traumas of the Beautiful Game. A lighthearted, fast-paced, bang-up-to-the-minute, and totally credible account of a 15-year-old boy who worries that he looks like Chris Evans.

Genres: Childrens, Young Adult

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Alan Gibbons is an author of children's books and a Blue Peter Book Award. He currently lives in Liverpool, England, where he used to teach in a primary school. His father was a farm laborer, but was hurt in an accident when Alan was eight years old. The family had to move to Crewe, Cheshire where Alan experienced bullying for the first time. He began to write for his pupils as a teacher, but never tried to get any of his work published.

Gibbons trained to be a teacher in his mid-thirties and starting writing short stories for his students. Later, he began to write professionally. In 2000, he won the Blue Peter Book Award in the category "The Book I Couldn't Put Down" category for Shadow of the Minotaur. He was a judge for the 2001 Blue Peter Book Awards. He was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal in 2001 and 2003 and shortlisted twice for the Booktrust Teenage Prize. He has also won the Leicester Book of the Year, the Stockport Book Award, the Angus Book Award, the Catalyst Award, the Birmingham Chills Award, the Salford Young Adult Book Award and the Salford Librarians' Special Award.

Reviews

[HW · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unusual blend of football and teenage romance with a laddish MMC. Definitely a gap in the book market for this sort of crossover, rather than confining boys = football and girls = dating.

Easy to read and engaging writing style, as I said before, very “laddish” and conversational style of dialogue. You’ll likely have a particular joy in this book if you are from the North West of England (specifically Greater Manchester or Merseyside) or you remember reasonably well the 2000-2001 Premiership season, as there is a sizeable amount of descriptions of specific football games and players.

I REALLY enjoyed this when I was younger and actively had a football season ticket - now I am older and haven’t really engaged with football for nearly a decade, the football aspects interested me less on this reread, hence the average score, but I think this would be a great book to give to 10-14 year olds of any gender who are into football.

A couple of bits haven’t aged well, like names girls are called and like an R Kelly song reference, but they are of the time and fit in with the dialogue style on the whole.

[louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is something wrong with that synopsis. This book was not a Romeo and Juliet story at all because Romeo and Juliet actually get together without anyone knowing. That doesn't happen in this book because Julie and Terry hardly speak to each other.

I was quite disappointed and even a bit annoyed with this book. It was a lot like my Facebook news feed: negative after whine after whinge after put down after character needing a good smack across the face. Also, football makes up 90% of this book (watching football, commentating on football, being teased about football, playing football and last, but not least talking about football) while 10% is Terry doing other things that don't involve football. The cover just showcases that this book is about football; it will definitely drag boys to it only for them to be horrified when it's about a boy in love and not footballers.

There were very few characters that I liked in this book, they were all either obnoxious, pessimistic, in need of a slap or all of the above. Everyone argues about football and that really bugged me because I hear arguments about football every day (my hometown revolves around sports). They don't realise that football is only a game. I was quite irked when Chloe, the only character who is nice and has a functioning brain, turned into everyone else because she got dumped.

Although this was quite a short book, it was quite hard to trudge though a football commentary, obnoxious taunts, pining and rhetorical questions every chapter. Every chapter has sections in that are given dates and times. I didn't understand why these are present as the book isn't in a diary format and takes place in the present tense. They felt a bit unnecessary to me.

There are a couple of good things I could say about this book; the first is that the book takes place in the North of England so I was able to relate to some elements of the book, like how the world of Northern England revolves around sports and that teams have enemies and those enemies will spill your guts simply for winning a match. The second thing (albeit a bit of a silly thing) is that my hometown of Sunderland is mentioned five times throughout the book during Terry's football commentaries as he wants the team to win against one of the many teams that he hates.

All in all, this book was disappointing. And that will be because I am female, not a child anymore and I can't stand football. There is a follow-up to this book and chances are, I won't be reading it.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Join Terry Payne as he copes with being a sixteen-year-old boy in England, and all the trials and tribulations that come with that. Despite being billed as a book for teenagers, this is actually a very engaging read for any age. Despite limitations imposed by the format of the book (basically it is Terry's diary/internal monologue, which means that only his point of view is ever presented to the reader) the plot is varied as Terry struggles to cope with the various circumstances in his life, from his massive crush on school newcomer Julie through his parents' marital difficulties to his impending GCSE exams, and there is plenty of humour, drama and action to satisfy the reader. The characters are all well fleshed out, and very real in their depth, again no mean feat given the limited point-of-view of the narration. All in all time well spent if you choose to read this.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read it over 2 days - couldn't put it down and the follow up book too. It captured the obsessive feelings of wanting a romantic relationships with someone when you aren't sure that the feelings are returned both for teenagers and adults.

[Kristine Soria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want more. I really hoped it wasn't series. The book was very entertaining. I wasn't bored a bit. I just hate Terry's mindset though, also he's too self-centered and doesn't see what's there.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Remember reading this early on in high school and loved it! Came across it in a charity shop an bought it for my nephew to read..... That didnt happen as i read it again myself and still enjoyed it!