Hi, I'm Mrs. F-B!

Saturday, June 07, 2008

2 books by Justina Chen Headly

Nothing But the Truth (and a Few White Lies)
Girl Overboard


These books are written by my dentist's sister-in-law, of all things, which is how I heard about them, and I really enjoyed them. Both books have Asian main characters, which is great, as there are not that many Asian main characters in teen writing, although more are appearing each year. Both books are very funny and have boy and girl characters, although both leads are girls. (My dentist did tell me Justina is writing her next one from a boy's perspective - yeah!).

One thing I really like about these main characters is that in Nothing but the Truth the main character is a super smart math student and in Girl Overboard the lead is a super studly snowboarder. The characters both have some big flaws, so they're not perfect (because in real life, who is?), but I really like that they're both in roles that are not necessarily traditionally thought of as "girl" roles.

Both books also deal with parent issues, and most kids, no matter what ethnic group they belong to, can relate to that!

I enjoyed both books, but I have to say I liked Girl Overboard better - I thought it was a little smoother. I'm looking forward to the next installment from Justina Chen Headly

PS I found out from the book jacket this author is one of the co-founders of that super-cool readergirlz website I like so much: http://www.readergirlz.com/issue.html
Way to go, Justina!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Half Blood prince opens in

165 days
23 hours
and 16 minutes!

Ms. Yingling said...

Had Girl Overboard on my lists but not the other title, so thanks for the heads up. If you want a really interesting Asian American book, find a dusty copy of Cavanna's Jenny Kimura. Prejudice in the wake of WWII. Still have a copy here!