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by Elizabeth Atkinson
Alice isn't very "girly." She likes soccer, and working on her go-kart. When her family moves to the suburbs, her first friend is a boy, Zen.
Zen isn't very "boy-y." He likes fashion magazine quizzes and singing like a diva...
So now, Alice is starting at her new middle school, and neither she nor Zen fit in. At all.
Why is it so hard to just be yourself?
Add your review of "From Alice To Zen and Everyone In Between" in comments!
4 comments:
I wish they'd had books like this when I was a kid.
You said Zen isn't very "boy-y", I think for the parallel to Alice not being "girly."
My first thought was that this choice was since there wasn't an existing word, but then I realized...
Um, how 'bout "manly"?
*apologies to all for nit-picking*
Hi Anonymous June 14,
I hear you about "manly" vs. "boy-y." but then I think I'd need to use "womanly" which has a different, more adult connotation. I think it's interesting that there are holes in our language in many places where we have cultural blind-spots - and gender roles is a huge blind-spot.
There's "girly" and "womanly," but only "manly?" Isn't that odd? Hence my invented word, "boy-y."
Certainly a little clumsy, especially with the hyphen, but it led to this interesting discussion, and for that I'm grateful.
Namaste,
Lee
I just reviewed this book. While I did like Zen and his un-manly qualities I didn't have empathy for the characters.
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