Boy Minus Girl

by Richard Uhlig

Book Overview

LES WANTS the girl. He thinks she's amazing, exotic, perfect. But he doesn't know how to talk to her, kiss her, or make her realize that he's the best and only guy for her in the whole wide world.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375839682
• ISBN13: 9780375839689
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Boy Minus Girl

This was a delightful insight in to the thinking and wishfull sex life of an average teen age boy. Being a girl, I had no idea how boys think! I wish I'd had a chance to read something like this when my son was younger. It certainly opened my eyes and gave me a laugh. I passed it on to my daughter and son in law to read as they have two sons. I will be anxious to read more wonderful things from this author.

Read This Book!

It's About: Fourteen year old Lester is trying to figure out the same things most fourteen year old boys are: how to be cool, how to get a girl and how to deal with parents that turn out to be, well, actual people. In this delightfully crass coming of age novel, punctuated with tips on how to be a seductive man, Lester thinks he can find the secrets of becoming a man from his itinerant uncle Ray- a womanizing drifter with a cherry car and a secret past. And while he's getting tips from the gun-toting, wife-stealing Ray, Lester's also trying to make his first moves on Charity, a Louise Brooksalike who turns out to be a lesbian and a friend. But Lester learns more about being a man when a woman from uncle Ray's past collides with Lester's present- and he has to step up to take responsibility where his uncle won't. This novel is a fascinating intersection between the Aughts and the Eighties- the backdrop is very 1984, and some of the attitudes are true to the era, but the novel itself has a very 2008 sensibility to it- accessible to teens whose lifetime Republican president is George W., and who's never seen the Tonight Show with anyone hosting but Jay Leno. It never feels anachronistic, though- Uhlig manages to fuse now with then, with a lot of humor and honesty. Would I Give This Book to a Teen: Absolutely. I think teen boys would feel like they're getting away with something reading this, because of the wicked, frank sexuality- but boys and girls will take away more than illicit thrills. Lester is genuinely complex, and it's a pleasure watching him learn to relate to the people around him. Would I Give This Book to an Adult: Totally depends on the adult. Some of the more... anxious adults might have a problem with a text that admits that straight teenaged boys masturbate (*gasp!*) and like to look at naked women (*shock!*). But I'd be pleased to share it with more reality-based adults, because I think they'd enjoy both the main story, and the complicated histories of the adults going on in the background.