Monday, July 22, 2019

Wildfire #73 The Boy Barrier and #74 The Yes Girl

73. The Boy Barrier, Jesse DuKore, 1985

"Love" means zero in tennis.  That's a score that Stacey King, the Number One player on the girls' tennis team, never earns on the court.  Off the court, it's another story.  There her love life scores a big fat zero!  Stacey was always too busy playing tennis to learn how to talk to boys.  Now she'd like the chance to change all that—especially since she's met Keith Flowers, the Number One player on the boys' team.  But the boy barrier is harder to break than Stacey had realized.  It gets even harder when the coach of the boys' team asks Stacey to join. If she accepts, will she become "just one of the boys"?  Can Stacey be Number One in Keith's heart if she takes his place as Number One on the team?

Stacey's best friend is Sally, and the similar names kept confusing me.  Also, too many people are introduced all at once in the same scene at the beginning of the story, which made my confusion even worse.  I cannot remember characters when they are thrown at me all at once.

I was confused on page 70.  The reader is told that Stacey's mother never went to college because it was the time of the Great Depression.  The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939.  Either this book is set way back in the past, or else Stacey's mother is much older than would be expected.  The book was published in 1985, so Stacey's mother would have been at least 65 years old.  This is possible, but it is not how these books are usually set up.

On page 44, the story starts getting interesting when Stacey joins the boy's team.  However, the story then falls flat.  I only read part of the book.  The book has too much content about tennis, and the characters are boring.  I did not care about the story. 

74. The Yes Girl, Kathryn Makris, 1985

Gwen’s favorite word is yes.  She says yes to Susan who asks for free math tutoring, yes to any friend who needs help... even a yes to nice but boring Mitch who asks her for dates.  Gwen doesn't have a minute to herself.  

Unfortunately, she hardly has any time for Phil, either.  Phil is funny, handsome, and definitely not boring.  And Gwen likes him a lot.  When he asks her out, Gwen says yes... with delight.  But she is still saying yes to Mitch, too. 

Phil soon becomes tired of being Gwen's second choice, and tells her so angrily.  Now Gwen is torn.  If she starts saying no, she may lose her friends. If she can't stop saying yes, she'll lose Phil.

I do not find it enjoyable to read about a girl who is letting everyone take advantage of her so that she doesn't have any fun.  Going out with boys she doesn't like is appalling.

I read a little of the book, skimmed some, then I read the ending.  The only part of the book that interested me was the last couple of chapters.

1 comment:

Tai said...

I loved "The Yes Girl!" The main character is a total pushover at first, but by the end of the novel she learns how to be more assertive and powerful.