The Wandora Unit

by Jessy Randall

Wanda Lowell and Dora Nussbaum are best friends. They look alike, dress alike, share the same opinions, and co-edit the school's literary magazine, Galaxy. They are so close that their friends at Brighton High School have dubbed them "The Wandora Unit." But things are shifting in their senior year of high school. What once seemed absolute and certain now are just memories. While this tight-knit group of friends discovers who they are they find themselves drifting apart. As friendships turn and relationships blossom they are held together by their love of Galaxy and their desire to be individuals in a world that doesn't always let them. The Wandora Unit is a bittersweet story about the meaning of friendship, the lessons of growing beyond one's boundaries, and the joy of being part of something that makes us bigger than who we really are.

Genres: Young Adult

204 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2009

Reviews

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Cat for TeensReadToo.com

Wanda Lowell and Dora Nussbaum have been best friends for as long as everyone can remember. So often are they in each other's company they've been dubbed The Wandora Unit by their classmates, leaving some to wonder which girl is which.

Entering the final months of their senior year, subtle shifts in the landscape of their lives alert Dora to the possibility that she and Wanda may not have as much in common as they used to. As the girls and their friends struggle to finish compiling their final hurrah in Brighton High's poetry magazine, the contributions they and their friends make to Galaxy serves as a bread crumb trail of clues to the unraveling of the girls' relationship.

If I had to sum up Jessy Randall's THE WANDORA UNIT in a single word, it would be "quirky." Full of interesting, offbeat characters, THE WANDORA UNIT is a quiet study of relationships, group dynamics, teenage life in a small town (complete with just one or two restaurants *everybody* frequents), and how the people around us shape who we are. This book is a wonderful trip back in time, stripped of all the distracting gadgetry so prevalent in the new millennium, which allows our focus to remain on the characters themselves and how they drive the story.

I'd especially recommend it to anyone entering their last few years of primary education, people who've been out of high school for (at least) ten years or more, and anyone fond of 80's pop culture.

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wandora Unit brilliantly captures the essential qualities of high school friendships, the joy of words and of discovering their capacity for playfulness and artistic expression, the pleasure of immersing oneself in the writing of others and of producing it oneself, the extreme seriousness with which high school students regard themselves at some moments, the utter silliness of other moments, the simultaneous presence of kid and adult present in all teenagers, their absolute conviction that their world, the world that exists for them at a particular moment, will last forever, and the ultimate realization that everything is ephemeral. And it’s just plain fun. An enthusiastic thumbs up!

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a witty, fantastic YA book about the exploration of a friendship gone awry. A great read about what it's like to find yourself at the end of high school. Jessy is an amazing writer...not just for teens.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

It rocks! I read it in 2.5 hours because all I wanted to do was read it until it was done and then I had that heyisthatalliwantmore feeling and guess what? There was (a bit) more!

[Kaye Lynne Booth · Rating 4 out of 5]

See my review here:
http://www.examiner.com/literature-in...