The Girls

by Amy Goldman Koss

Maya has been part of the group ever since the day Candace asked her if she wanted to "do lunch" in the cafeteria. Yet when Candace suddenly deems her unworthy, Maya's so-called friends just blow her off. While Maya just wants the girls back like they used to be, she knows that can never happen—because whatever Candace wants, Candace gets, no matter who gets hurt. Maya isn't sure exactly where things went wrong for her, but she knows she has to find out who her real friends are, and who among the girls she can trust.

"[A] suspenseful and realistic portrayal of a popular middle school clique . . . . Readers will identify with and remember these characters." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Middle Grade, Friendship, School, Childrens

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[rae · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why do I remember almost nothing about this book?

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maya was part of the group that was headed by the popular Candace. At least she was part of the group until Candace got bored with her. The only reason Maya found out is that she called a friend and her friend's mother asked why she wasn't at Darcy's sleepover. The other girls in the group don't hate Maya though, and they aren't sure why they are supposed to. One by one the girls come to realize that maybe being Candace's friend is that good.

I liked this book a lot when I read it back in 6th or 7th grade. This time around I found it a bit unrealistic and the girls incredibly two dimensional. The head girl Candace is really mean on the outside but really deep on the inside? If she were really that deep on the inside she would have probably found some better friends, or just been an outcast. Maybe not though, maybe tormenting other people made her feel in control of her out of control thoughts.This was a fast read about girls finding out where their loyalties lie and that sometimes the most popular, doesn't mean the best. A lot of the time these girls would say things or make references to things that seemed way beyond them. I'm not saying young girls are idiots, but there are certain things you don't allude to at that age, because you haven't been exposed to it. Just because I, upon rereading this, did not enjoy it this time around, this does not mean that younger girls won't find it appealing. It's a quick read and most girls will probably be able to relate to at least on of the other girls. I do like how this book ends though...very leading.

First Line:
"Last Saturday, I stumbled half asleep into the kitchen, aiming for a bowl of granola, thinking it was just any old Saturday morning."

Favorite Line:
"My mom's cosmetics were a bottle of dandruff shampoo and a lipstick."

[katie tadesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this in one sitting in fourty five minutes and i had wanted to read something real. it wasn't very memorable, or exquisitely written, but it was a real book and i appreciated that. maya's character is so realistic. after being silently kicked out of her friend group her entire life falls apart and i have never felt more seen. this was so much better than all the stupid novels about "realistic middle/high school bullying" involving after school fights and stealing lunch money.

"I looked around the classroom wondering who knew. They'd know soon if they didn't already. They'd all know I'd been thrown out of the group, and everyone would wonder why. They'd all think I had done something bad. They'd be afraid to talk to me, to be seen with me."

"Then I realized that if I'd fallen, everyone would think I'd jumped. If I'd died from the fall, they'd think it was suicide. The girls would be sure I'd killed myself over them! I could imagine how important that would make them feel--that they could hurt me so badly that I'd think my life wasn't worth living. They'd mourn and act sad, but deep inside they'd feel great that they were so powerful."

[Mirkat · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Girls This is a very short listen; it was just over two hours, and I listened to the whole thing in one day (partly on a run and partly waiting for/riding an Amtrak train).  Maya is a seventh grader who suddenly finds herself shut ouf of the clique she'd formerly belonged to.  Its queen bee Candace had suddenly become bored with her and convinced Darcy not to invite Maya to a slumber party.  The other members of the clique, Brianna and Renee, are included in the party.  The audio production features a full cast to depict the characters, and each chapter is narrated by one of the girls.  The girls who are expected to go along with the shunning have varying reactions to the situation, along with quite different parental approaches to what the girls are doing.  The girls have mixed feelings about Candace, along with their perceived expectation that they always need to agree with her or comply with her wishes.  Candace herself has the feeling that her friends are "feeding off of [her]" with their constant need to please her.
 
I'm not in the target audience for this book, but I feel the author is doing the whole "cliques" thing right.  I think Lisi Harrison needs to read this and absorb the idea that the mean-girl tactics of middle-school cliques are not a cool thing young readers should be encouraged to emulate.

[Dezirae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because it told about real life problems and all about how to solve them. A couple things I didn't like is the way they treat the girls in the story. How they bully them is the part I dont like. They go behind each others back and talk bad about each other, this happens and real life and *needs* to stop.

[Cecily Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way too petty and juvenile for me. Just regular bullying mean girls lesson learned kinda stuff. Not really in a place in my life where this kinda stuff matters...
Good for a certain audience, just not me.
Meh Read!

[Elyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

(I read this book for 3rd quarter)I really liked the book The Girls because I could really relate to it. My friends used to act like this also. I would highly recommend this because it can really educate people about the point of views of all of the girls in the group. It is very interesting to see what everyone is thinking. I think the author did a really good job of writing this. Everyone gets excluded sometimes, but this really make you think about how it makes others feel.


Candace is the ‘queen bee’ of the group. Everyone does what she says to. Maya is slowly realizing how rude she is. As Maya does she starts to want to leave, but is scared to. Maya and Candace’s friends all don’t like Candace, but none of them tell each other this. They don’t realize that the rest of them feel this way. One day Candace has a sleepover with all her friends and didn’t invite Maya. When Maya found out about this she was so upset. At the sleepover, the girls prank called Maya and were very rude to her. The girls at the sleepover, except for Candace, were wondering why, all of a sudden, Maya wasn’t invited. The girls wanted to know why but wouldn’t ask because it would make Candace think that they were on Maya’s side. When babysitting, Brianna, one of the members of the group, asked Candace why Maya wasn’t invited. Candace was so mad at Brianna that she left her alone babysitting. The group was falling apart, and they didn’t know what to do about it.





I can connect this to my life. Each character relates to a specific person in my friend group. I thought it was really interesting to see what they are thinking because I’m sure that that is what my friends are thinking in situations like these. I can also relate this to the book The Skin I’m in because Char acts like Candace. They both are controlling of her ‘friends’. Maya is exactly like Maleeka because they both don’t want to be friends with the mean girl, but they are scared to leave them. These books are both about bullying and are very alike.

[Maya Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Girls, by Amy Goldman Koss, is a quick read about the dark side of being popular. If I hadn't already read so many books like this I might like it more, but it was still enjoyable. I gave this two stars because there were boring lapses and I found it unbelievable that these girls like Candace so much. She doesn't even pretend to be nice! She is so frank in her rudeness, especially to Brianna and Maya, that you're surprised her friends haven't left her. I thought that the characters with the most depth were Maya and Darcy--maybe the story should have stayed with them. The others were sort of flat. Candace confused me: She wished her friends weren't always looking to her for guidance, but she jumps all over them when they express their own opinion. Still, at the same time it was actually entertaining to read about all the characters and hear their side of the story. Each girl has her own role in the clique, and they're clearly afraid to break out of it.

[Camila]

The book The Girls is a really good book that many people should read. this book offers a great lesson bullying and blindly following others. The attitudes and behaviors of the girls in this story are very typical of a group of friends. It shows that in the group of friends there is always the one friend that is being followed by the rest of girls. She gets what she wants and no one is going to do anything to stop her, even if the others know it’s not the right thing to do. We all know how it feels to be left out at some point, and we could all say it’s not a good feeling. Mya in this case is the one that gets left out, because the leader of the group doesn’t want to hang out with her. The other girls just go along with anything she says, because they don’t want to be the ones to be left out of the group.

[H · Rating 3 out of 5]

An above average story about a group of friends in which one Queen Bee calls the shots and the others walk on eggshells hoping to be noticed, but not noticed TOO much. Although a little dated (crank calls might draw a blank stare in this age of caller ID) the theme of a group of frenemies and what happens when one girl is singled out to be suddenly excluded is timeless. Narration skips from girl to girl in this short story. Unusual for using the POV of the "meanest" of the mean girls. The only quibble is that kids might find the fact that the Queen Bee is relatively unscathed and unchanged somewhat disappointing, but has lots of rich places for discussion (are the girls really friends? Who deserves more disapproval - those who go along, those who join in or the instigator, etc.)

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book about the cattiness of tween girls and how friends turn on each other. This book is a good read for tween girls and even their parents.

Listened to this again with my almost 12 year old daughter and 10 year old son. They liked it a lot despite the seriousness, intensity of relationships (girls), and reality of the characters. My daughter said it should be required reading for middle school girls to think about how "friends" use you and what your actions do to others. We agreed that it would be good for boys too because while they may not always outwardly demonstrate drama with each other they use/abuse each other in quite the same ways as done in this book.

[J-Lynn Van Pelt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is scary because it does such a great job of capturing to back-stabbing, esteem-crushing, scramble to the top at the expense of others mania that are the inner workings of popular girl cliques everywhere. Some of the girls are portrayed as victims who are being walked on by others. But, the reader also hears the story of the girl who leads and manipulates the bunch, throwing out "firends" to be social outcasts when she gets bored with them. Koss allows readers to enter the world of teenage girl dynamics.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Girls is a solid book dealing with peer pressure in middle school cliques. High school age teens will probably find it beneath them; though they may identify with the girls' feelings, they probably will not want to admit it. I could see this being a great choice for a middle school age novel group or book club for girls, since it offers several different perspectives of problems within cliques. It is a good choice for a middle school library.

[Megan Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this should be required reading, even just summer reading, for every student going into middle school. It's a tale about friendships and bullying and how even something as innocuous as exclusion can be just as painful a physical attack.

And, honestly? I wanted to stab the main character with a fork.

Excellent, wonderful, amazing--and harsh--book.

5/5 on here, 10/10 for myself

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

People can be such, complete jerks! This book makes you realize how cruel others can be, and you need to look at your friendships, are they really your friends? Don't be friends with someone just because they're popular, but they treat you like crap, you deserve better.

[Christine! · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, I really enjoyed this book.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very similar to the movie Mean Girls. I thought it is a good book for middle school girls. I could see myself in a few of the characters.

[Jane Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great book and a quick read!

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book because their is so much problems and it so related to me and I love how the author makes me feel like I am in the book.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the way it was written. Each chapter was a different point of view. Amazing!

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a super quick, predictable read. Fairly simple and easy to understand, not a lot of development, but enough. It was pretty chilling because Goldman Ross focused on inner dialogue rather than physical actions. This forced the reader to consider the why of being a mean girl bully rather than thinking about the bullying itself. To that end, the treatment of Maya is tame. Hurtful, but tame. I don't remember the book discussing age/grade, but I assumed middle school -- 4th-6th graders. This sort of book is a good introduction to kindness for the middle aged reader. It isn't too dark or sinister, but demonstrates the importance of being kind. It also hints at talking to an adult in the scene with Nurse Edith. Good messaging there!
I found the ending paragraph from Nicole's POV to be sad and cautionary. Recommend for young ladies in upper elementary/middle school.

[Stephanie B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a girl named Maya who has some friends but for some reason they all decide to not invite her to this party that all of her friends are invited and so that starts a dramatic issue in her life and she has to figure out how to deal with it and she has to decide if they are actually her friends or not. I would probably not recommend this book to a friends because it was all about drama and not anyone likes drama. An example of figurative language I found was when Maya says about one of the girls that was being mean to her, she says, "she's a hawk that wants the tear me apart." A quote that I liked from this book was said by maya, "The spell is broken!"

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This exploration of exclusion bullying gives insight into each of 5 girls who are "in" or "out" of the popular group by turns. It does not have a happy ending and is lacking any modeling of healthy thought processes. It's value lies, I suppose, in the obvious callousness and hurtfulness that a young girl may not be able to see in herself or her peers, but could recognize in these characters. I wouldn't leave this one on the classroom shelf to be read independently. It may help as a group read or read-aloud to help in cases of ostracism.

[Rachel007 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this on the suggestion of my therapist. Lol. It was SO 90’s/2000’s. Clocked at 120 pages, THE GIRLS attempts to look at middle school girls and the friendship hierarchy that goes on at that age. I longed for more characterization and backstory but I gave it 2 stars because I appreciated the ending: the BS still goes on to new girls even if you’re dropped as a friend.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

I'm currently trying to reread middle grade novels that I loved for a readathon. This is one of them and I still really enjoyed it. There's not much of a plot - it's more of a character-driven story and revolves around one girl suddenly being excluded from her friend group. You get chapters from each girl's perspective. It felt very real and relatable.

[Carie · Rating 2 out of 5]

A read aloud to my 9 year old daughter to facilitate discussions about healthy/unhealthy relationships with peers. The subject matter was geared towards middle schoolers which made this book not the best for my 3rd grader. Overall, the book was okay but it didn’t spark the conversations I was hoping it would.

[Erika · Rating 2 out of 5]

One of my students had to read this for Battle of the Books but couldn’t get through it so I wanted to read it to see what it was like. It is all girl drama. A good lesson on how quickly alliances change and how cruel girls can be but not a book I would recommend.

[Greer · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was learning message in this book about who a true friend really is. If I had a tween girl I would have her read this little book. If I knew a mother of a tween I'd give her this book. A refresher book of of growing up trying to fit in and realizing you need to be true to yourself.

[Alecia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just kind of boring. Typical gossipy and vindictive teenage girl friend drama. A story of how cruel teenage girls can be to one another. It was a fast read and the writing style was not hard to follow at all. It is just a forgettable story with no real substance.

[Tai · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was in the YA section of my library. It read more like it should've been in the children's section. I think the only aspect of this short, juvenile story, that would possibly render it YA, is the mild psychological intrigue. I do not recommend