Click Here: To Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade

Erin Swift #1

by Denise Vega

Imagine if all your personal thoughts about crushes, fears, enemies, and even kissing practice ended up on the Internet for everyone to read. That's what happens to Erin Swift when her super-secret blog and all of her musings on navigating the treacherous waters of seventh grade--including her feelings about herself, her best friend Jillian, her crushes, and growing up--are accidentally uploaded for the whole school to see!

Written with warm, knowing humor, this story perfectly captures seventh grade life.

Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Middle Grade, Coming Of Age

241 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

I've been writing since I was a kid but it took awhile to get published-I had to work at improving my craft! Click Here was the sixth novel I'd written, the first to be accepted for publication. It went on to become a bestselling title for the Scholastic Book Fairs/Clubs, won the Colorado Book Award for Young Adult Literature, and was a 2008 Louisiana Reader’s Choice Nominee. I was excited and nervous to write Access Denied, the sequel to Click Here, because so many readers have written to tell me how much they loved it. But luckily my readers have really liked it - whew. Fact of Life #31 won the Colorado Top Hand Award and the Colorado Book Award for Young Adult Literature. My newest book, ROCK ON, which was so much fun to write. Other stuff about me: I'm a Co-Regional Advisor of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of SCBWI and enjoy giving back in that way. I love french fries and can't stand cheese so if you want to make me dinner, leave that stuff out of it!

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Click Here is an excellent book! It is actually my favorite book. The Author did a wonderful job making me laugh and enjoy every part of this story. Click Here proved to me that it was an extremly sucessful novel. I pretty much liked everything in this book. I think that every part of the novel actually worked for me, but I especially enjoyed the parts of the book where the main character,Erin, writes in her computer diary. It is really funny and makes you think. The author uses exellent word choice and details that remind me of what middle school was like. I also liked the books theme, which was surviving seventh grade. It was really realistic how the author descibes how difficult school, or in this case, seventh grade can be. The mood of this story was very uplifting and the author used language that was extremly detailed and humorous, but at the same time, fun to read.
Probably the best part of this novel is the humor that comes from the main character, Erin's life. She is constantly faced with difficult situations that she always tries to fix. The first situation Erin is faced with, is the fact that her and her best friend, Jilly are not going to be on the same track in Middle School. This means that they will have different lunch hours and rarely, if ever, see each other during school. Soon Erin learns to accept school for what it is and finds herself in a giant crush with Mark. Erin absoutly is head over heels for this, "Hot Tamalie" when out of no where, her best friend, Jilly decides to go out with him. Erin is heart broken and feels betrayed, so to let her feelings out she records all her thoughts in a private, online diary. As if things were not going horrible enough...Erin's online journal is accidently broadcast to the entire school. Her feelings went from being private, to being read by every other student at her school. I appreciated how Erin handled everything, but I often felt very bad for her.
This is my favorite book and I have read this book many times, but I really love it! It is so funny and sometimes I felt like I related to the main charactor of this book. If someone is interested in laughing and having a great time while reading, I suggest you read this book.

[Mariya · Rating 1 out of 5]

i don't even remember what this one was about. i only remember that she had big feet. not a memorable book.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Erin Swift is going into seventh grade. It’s her first year of middle school, and the first time she'll be separated from her best friend, Jilly. As she's working things out and settling in at her new school, she starts a private blog where she writes all her feelings and thoughts. Everything seems to be going great, until her secret blog is accidentally uploaded to the school website for everyone to read.



. . .



This was SOOOO cute. Oh my Goodness. I loved it. I was really happy I picked this one up.



I LOVED Erin. She had such a neat personality. I loved how she wasn't perfect. Her having imperfections and issues made her seem more real. I loved how brave she was in the end. I could really relate to her. I've never gone to a public school, but I have been in seventh grade. So I knew what she was feeling. And also, her name is just AWESOME.



The writing was really great. It was in first person. In between the chapters there were a few pages set up like Erin's blog. So you could read what she was writing. It was really fun.



The only parts I could see that might be inappropriate... was her older brother got drunk, and Erin was talking about how in the past she'd played spin the bottle. But otherwise it was pretty clean.



Really cute coming of age book!

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my GOSH I absolutly LOVED this book!!!! Its my Faverite book! I love how it says that friends are better than boyfriends and that friends last a lot longer! I recomend this to mostly 6th and 7th graders! AND ONLY GIRLS!!!!!! NO EXCEPTIONS! So read it if you really like drama and you'll fall in LOVE with it!!!!!!!!!!! ITs AWsOmE!!

[Jerrica · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book has potential, but it ends up like a regular middle school horror story book about a girl who loves a popular but thoughtful boy, has an enemy with a long, important sounding name (Serena Worthington, anyone?) and has a slightly more popular than her best friend. Erin tries to defeat the stereotype of normal, angsty, middle-school aged narrator but sounds like the rest of them. The author tried to mix it up, instead of the girl writing poems or drawing a piece and entering it in the school art fair (or whatever), she is a web designer! And while the author injects us with computer terms and savvy computer talk, it does not disguise the fact that the "novel" was full of Erin's fantasies and weird acronyms for everything, which start to get annoying after you have to translate every single one of them (and believe me, there are a lot) and stop when you can't remember it exactly.

And it doesn't help that the title was written in cursive and your incredibly immature boyfriend doesn't think it says "click here", but rather something else entirely and shows it to the boy population of whatever class you are in (English/Science/Study Hall) and asks them to read what the title is. Idiots.

[Lindsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Click Here by Denise Vega is a phenomenal book about 7th grader Erin Swift and how her life gets flipped upside down. Imagine that you had a online diary and wrote everything (I mean EVERYTHING) on it. When you and your classmates made a internet for the school. When you were home sick and it was launching. They took the wrong file and your personal diary ended up on the front page of the internet. Well, that’s exactly what happened to Erin Swift. On her diary there was secrets like her crush, about her friend Jilly and about her KISSING HER PILLOW! In most peoples eyes, Erin is a complete loser. But right as they get to know her, all those “nerdy secrets” come out. School Janitors, Cherry flavored tootsies pops and her big feet help her along the way.
I loved this book because it is a great middle level read. It doesn’t take long to read it. Even though this book starts out very slow, it gets better and better the more you read. This is an excellent book for girls 11 & up, if they like realistic fiction.“Somebody once told me that good friends are like Tootsie Pops, if you don't bite them they won't bite you. Erin Swift”

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Click Here to Find Out How I Survived Seventh Grade" was a great book. It was all about a girl named Erin Swift trying to survive seventh grade a.k.a. her first year at Molly Brown Middle School. It follows her life and talks about her first semester of school which includes crushing on a boy in home-room; losing a best friend; making new frinds; making a private web page and getting in REALLY tough situations! Read this book to find out how Erin P. Swift survives seventh grade.

[Maddie Cruse · Rating 5 out of 5]

sometimes you need to revisit a childhood fav when you’re depressed :,)

[Ali Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book growing up. Re-read it cuz I’m going through my whole shelf again. It’s everything that a 7th grader is. The complicated friendships, crushes, sibling problems - it’s so relatable. Cringy at times but that’s because middle schoolers make a lot of mistakes. That’s just what happens in middle school. This book showed some great lessons about maintaining friendships trying to think before you act… even though that’s still something tough to do in your adulthood. It’s a coming of age story that really just did the trick for me growing up and was a great nostalgia read.

[Allie]

"Click Here" is a cute book written from the perspective of a 7th grade girl who is socially awkward, shy, and hopeless in ove with a boy she can nly dmire from afar. i found it funny and relateabl because, as crazy as this may sound, i was once shy and awkward around eerybody and also kept a diary. its amusing to me to look at her blog enteries and think of my old diary and realize how similar they are. I woud reccomend this book to girls, becuase most girls know what its like to be ignored and liking someone who doesnt know your there, but i wouldnt recommend it to any boys. its a well written cute comical romantic story, but thats exactly it, romantic, not many boys my age would like it. The point of view is first person from a 7th grade girl anmed Erin, i like the way the author Denise Vega gave Erin such a quirky personality that the story is entertaining throughout. the plot reveals a lot of twists and some good messages, love is around every corner, and once you post something online...its out there forever and you cant get it back.

[Kaylee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy reading Click Here because it is realistic fiction and tells a story of something that could happen to anyone in middle school. Some of the parts in this book are exaggerated and probably would not be that extreme.
From this book I learned that you should be your own person. I believe that doing everything that someone tells you to do, and always listening to them can not be a good thing. It is better to have confidence, stand up for yourself, and do what you think it the right thing to do. For example, in Click Here Erin was called a "puppet" by Serena Worthington, because she was always with Jilly and always did whatever Jilly said.
I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone in middle school. It tells a great story, and leaves great message with you.
I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did. =]

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

2019
Erin is a seventh grader with an obsession with computers and having large feet. She thinks Mark is cute, Tyler is a dork, and Jilly doesn't care about anyone but herself. She also thinks Serena is mean, Rosie might be stuck up, and wants to know if kissing her pillow will teach her how to kiss in real life.

And she takes all these feelings and emotions and insecurities and types them up in a blog. A private blog. One that no one is meant to read.

Unfortunately, things get a little bit mixed up and Erin's blog gets a little bit more public than she had wanted.

How does she survive? You'll have to wait and see.

[Ella Daveson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book click here has officially become my favourite book. I am absolutely DYING while I wait for the sequel to arrive by mail.
This book was so funny and sometimes dramatic but a great mix altogether. The Way Erin handles everything at the end literally blew my mind.
And how Jilly did not listen to Erin but did to Mark.
There was a twist around every corner.
I loved this book sooooo much, no joke.
5 out of 5 stars.

[shalea :) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great. I didn't really like how the ending turned out, nut that's only because I really wanted Erin and Mark to be a couple. Also, I really didn't like Jilly. I understand that her and Erin are best friends and everything but it just seemed like she used Erin so much. She seemed like a very fake friend to me, but I guess she was a good person deep inside.

[Halinor Everdeen Cipriano · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this read when I was shuffling through a shoulder high stack of books at my city's book fair. I seemed fairly satisfied with the basic storyline embossed on the back in glossy black writing, that was gathered within alluring, colorful and disturbingly pleasant pictures. (Disturbing because it was mostly pictures of candy, tongues and braces if I recall correctly, oh! And not to mention abnormally size-able feet...)
The story basically revolves around this young girl (really can't bother to go hunt down the book, or prod myself into remembering her name...)who has a terribly ego-centric friend, who she ABSOLUTELY adores!! It's a story that is probably at the epitome of BOOKS THAT ARE TERRIBLY ONE-SIDED (BTATOS... I should add a listopia on this, where do I get this stuff from?)
I say this and antagonize the book, because it's so terribly misdirecting! Suppose you were to have big feet and did read it, you'd be humiliated by some of the responses and prejudice the students who meet Miss. Protagonist revel in! It also swells certain fantastical (allegedly popular) people's vanity potency and leaves you wondering where you're left in this world if you don't have people groveling at your toes...
Miss. Protagonist has freakishly over-sized feet, (ones that I grew to adore... strange, but considerable because it's just like large font...It screams for attention rather than meekly or flirtatiously hollering for it!)a comical condition she's always admonished for... piteous and detestable really! But here's the catch, it's her first day of middle school , and she's pried apart from her delicious (perfectly pompous, and rancid)best friend... therefore she's all panicky, she's a self- critical, or rather self-decrepit character that would rather pee in her large Chucks than be introduced to the intrinsic courtship rituals of pre-teens... Then she meets Mike (???I blame my faulty memory, honestly I had nothing to do with it!)who brings out a timid, bashful side of her and leaves her in a dizzying fit of giggles every time she meets him... The problem? He's painfully dashing and soon (despite Miss. Protagonist's best efforts) finds the bitchy best friend yummy, like a choice array of meat. (terribly pungent, dog slobbery meat!)
So where am I getting with all of this? I'm just trying to ask that isn't this the kind of sod they've been feeding us for a while now? An insecure, self-conscious heroine, a scheming, pretentious best friend and one hot-shot they both would eat dirt for... Also somewhere along the way the heroine's eyes open, and she sees her friend for who she is and decides to stop punching Mr. Pillow, and throw a few shots at the friend herself... Believe me... I was just waiting agonizing minute after minute to see when I could actually read the story and not pointedly dictate the forthcoming plot to my oblivious dogs...

To conclude I would like to add, that although this review may not be very informative, or reinforce any faith you had in the fact that it may be good, it tells you that what you're about to read is basically a memory game... One that tests your ability to recall plots you may have encountered in other books... The only thing I did adore was the obvious passion with which the lead character tackled her computer classes and her blog, I also like the admirable relationship between her and her brother... These two elements have been life savers in this book, and have allowed it to veer off the precarious flop-show peak, and enter the land of the passable. (but barely!)Read it if you're an insecure teen who hasn't read about other insecure teens yet...

[Becca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Click Here is an excellent book because of the amazing word choice the author uses. I believe that that is kind of what middle school is like, how everything gets around so fast. When I read about the part where Erin accidentally gave the wrong disk to Tyler I felt absolutely bad for her. The things that she wanted to keep to herself were now all over the school intranet. Also I hated how Serina bumped into Erin and acted like a told snob and told Erin to watch where she was going… I absolutely cringed at the detail the author put in as Erin explained her pain and how she heard something “pop.” When Erin had the courage to stand up and wear a sign to tell certain people she was sorry about what she had said in her “online journal.” When Jilly was telling Erin she forgave her… I thought the way she told her she forgave her was the nicest way to tell someone that they forgive them. I definitely recommend this book to people that are already out of the seventh grade because when you are in seventh grade you will be scared that something like what happened to Erin will happen to you.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

click here by denise vega is a book about a girl with big feet braces and she loves totsie pops. she has a best friend (Jilly) who always seems to push her around. although she seems to take a stand for her self and stands up to jilly. Before that tho she realize sometimes friends are better than boy friends. So this is basically how she survived the 7th grade.

a text to text connection to the book O, O (olivia) is a basic suburbian girl who has her fist boy friend and she has to go through the 7th grade as well. i think that click here and O have allot of things in common book wise. although O does better on the social scale.

i gave this book 2 stars because i feel that i cant really relate to it, i feel the book is good but i have troble connecting to it. i feel that any one who is going through the 7th grade who is a girl should read this book, although its not set for everyone.

[Delaney · Rating 1 out of 5]

So this book seems to be those stereotypical girl book that everyone seems know: DRAMA. I picked it up, thought it was okay, and well, just ended up checking it out with me at my school. Truth to be told, I was tired from a run in my last period and when I started reading it, the two best friends weren't very special, relate-able, but not very entertaining. It was very cliche and it seems to not have worked. By the third chapter she is drooling and loving this boy who she doesn't even know yet but likes. Wow.--How surprising. But i mean, come on, some girls look for these kind of things, and something to relate to, but this book to seem to exaggerate a little too much. Unfinished and i seem to not give a second glance at it anymore.

Jilly, Erin's friend, seemed so self-centered and I can't seem to understand why Erin is still friends with her in the first place. I seem to like Rosie and how she defended Erin.

not workin just too much drama

[Reagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good book about a girl who has REALLY big feet, likes tootsie pops, plays basketball and soccer and has a crush on a boy in her homeroom. Her best friend(Jilly) is going to be on a different track then her for 7th grade, so she will have no friends. gladly, she DOES make friends, Rosie and mark(crushing homeroom guy!) But soon she has to make a dicision. Keep being pushed around buy Jilly, or make a stand for herself and become someone!
This book makes me cry in some parts, laugh in others, it has good connections with me seeing as sometimes I have troubles with my friends, but it works out always in the end. Read this book! You won't forget it!

[Silvio Curtis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought it might be interesting to see how the theme of computers gets treated outside of science fiction, but mostly this book just reminded me of why I stopped reading much realistic fiction before I was in seventh grade myself. It's about a student at a semi-fancyish middle school, her friends, crushes, and enemies, and various shiftings between those three categories. As for computers, they mostly show up as something you can teach people about if you know more than them, and as a means of bringing on the contrived ending. The lessons to be learned from the story are pretty decent, as life lessons from fiction go.

[Becks · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was filled with a cheap, over-used plot of a girls diary/journal/online whatever getting published and everyone knows her secrets.

I haven't let anything get away with that for me since that one Family Channel movie Read it and Weep (which was a great movie - I can't lie).

What sucks is that I won a signed copy of this on a Goodreads giveaway, which is very kind and I appreciate that. But I didn't find the book good, at all. I found it hard to find redeeming qualities, which I say with a heavy heart because I don't want to slam anyone's work.

I think the plot itself was blinding me to anything that could make up for it.

[Jerrica McDermott · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally found this book that I've been trying to find for so long. I read this in middle school and loved it so much (probably because it's just relatable for a self-conscious, awkward, young-for-her-grade middle-schooler. In English class, we had an activity where we had to pitch our favorite book to publishers (other students) as if we were the author and only one book from each class was chosen by the "publishers" to be published. I picked this book and it was the one that won. I think that's more of a testament to my persuasion skills than the quality of the book, but it was five stars from middle-school me!

[Mikaela Tynski · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Click Here' by Denise Vega, is about a girl named Erin Swift,who had a very dynamic seventh grade. Walking into the doors of MBMS Erin had no idea how diverse her life was about to become. From devastation to romances and humiliation, Erin experienced it all. Not only did she create a blog, but she poured all of her mixed emotions onto her not so private site. After all she is the computer whiz, so how could anything possibly go wrong with her well structured site? I would recommend this book to any girl between the ages of 10-14 and anyone who loves middle school- fiction.

[Weronika]

Have you ever told one person something from your diary and then regretted it? Well, I have, and I thought I had the worst until I read "Click Here (to find out how I survived seventh grade)" There was one girl at school (very unpopular) that had lots of friendship problems and to make it worse her WHOLE diary got posted in the school newspaper which everybody reads! I would really recommend this book because it has feelings in it and friendship problems that I went through.

[Cammi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best book ever!!!!!! One of my favorites!!!!!!! I just read it and I am re-reading it. It is sooooo good!!!! Definatley one of my favorites. It is realistic fiction, about a seventh grade girl, and I could relate to her very well, and I finished it in two days, so it wasn't too easy, but it wasn't too hard, and it was great and interesting from page one to the end, which is very rare Denise Vega deserves five stars!!!!!!

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Click Here is a great book!!!! It is my favorite book so far!!! I love books about guys and drama!!! So this book was so perfect for me!!! The book is about a girl named Erin Swift and she had her ups and downs at MBMS(Molly Brown Middle School) If you like reading about drama and guys and how to live through tough embarrassing times or sad times but som happy times than this book is perfect for you!!!"

[Pooja Dimba · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is not good at all.


The author tries to act like a middle schooler but frankly I've seen many books with the same plot..

Girl likes popular dude, popular dude likes slightly more popular best friend in the end popular dude likes the other girl..

Ugh..
Not a good read!!!

[Madison Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was very realistic. I read it in 7th grade and it actual taught me to never give up on people. It reminds me of the book im reading now but only its for freshman year. i really liked click here and im looking forward to reading the sequal that sydney is going to let me borrow (:

[Lexi · Rating 1 out of 5]

ack! this book is the creepiest ever!

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is also an amazing book about a girl who embarrasses herself at school. She the learns how to resolve this and fix the mess she made for herself.