Big Mouth No I did not. I did not, I did not. I did not say those things, and I did not plan those things. Won't It anyone believe me? Ugly Girl All right, Ugly Girl made a mistake. I'd told my mom what I'd heard in the cafeteria, and she'd told Dad. Evidently. I'd thought for sure they would want me to speak up for the truth.
Big Mouth and Ugly Girl FROM THE PUBLISHER Big Mouth No I did not. I did not, I did not. I did not say those things, and I did not plan those things. Won't It anyone believe me? Ugly Girl All right, Ugly Girl made a mistake. I'd told my mom what I'd heard in the cafeteria, and she'd told Dad. Evidently. I'd thought for sure they would want me to speak up for the truth. About the AuthorAward-winning author, Joyce Carol Oates was born in 1938 and grew up in upstate New York. While a scholarship student at Syracuse University, she won the coveted Mademoiselle fiction contest. She graduated as valedictorian, then earned an M.A. at the University of Wisconsin. In 1968, she began teaching at the University of Windsor. In 1978, she moved to New Jersey to teach creative writing at Princeton University, where she is now the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of the Humanities. A prolific writer, Joyce Carol Oates has produced some of the most controversial, and lasting, fiction of our time. Her novel, them, set in racially volatile 1960s Detroit, won the 1970 National Book Award. Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart focused on an interracial teenage romance. Black Water, a narrative based on the Kennedy-Chappaquiddick scandal, garnered a Pulitzer Prize nomination, and her national bestseller Blonde, an epic work on American icon Marilyn Monroe, became a National Book Award Finalist. Although Joyce Carol Oates has called herself, "a serious writer, as distinct from entertainers or propagandists," her novels have enthralled a wide audience, and We Were the Mulvaneys earned the #1 spot on the New York Times bestseller list.
FROM THE CRITICS Publishers Weekly A high school junior leaps to her classmate's defense when his throwaway joke about blowing up the school makes him a suspected terrorist. "The relationship between the two grows credibly and compellingly, against a convincing high school backdrop," said PW in a starred review. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
KLIATT - Paula Rohrlick
To quote from the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, May 2002: In this tale of two 16-year-old high school students, an unlikely romance blossoms out of a police investigation. Matt Donaghy, eager to be popular, is "Big Mouth," whose joke about a school massacre is overheard and misconstrued¿¿¿resulting in a detective inquiry and subsequent lawsuit that comes close to ruining his life and that of his family. Ursula Riggs, a tall, strong athlete who secretly calls herself "Ugly Girl," hides behind the harsh persona she has constructed to shelter her feelings. Unafraid of what others might think, she stands up for Matt when everyone else suspects him, and comes to his aid later when, ostracized and miserable, he is on the verge of suicide. When his beloved dog is kidnapped, Ursula again bravely comes to the rescue. A relationship slowly develops between the two over the course of the winter, as Matt comes to understand the far-reaching consequences of his big mouth and Ursula learns more about reaching out and relating to others. In her first novel for YAs, Oates shows the same skill in portraying family dynamics and violence that she has in her adult fiction. Ursula, angry and proud of being a misfit, is not at first an appealing character, but gradually her integrity wins over the reader, and it's interesting to have a female in the role of bold rescuer for a change. Some strong language. KLIATT Codes: JS¿¿¿Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2002, HarperTempest, 266p.,
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