Quit It

by Marcia Byalick

Book Overview

At a quick glance, Carrie looks just like everybody else in her seventh-grade class. She gets good grades, acts in school plays, kicks a pretty decent soccer ball, and is a sensational Game Boy... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385729979
• ISBN13: 9780385729970
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 171 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7

Customer Reviews

Well-written and on target

I'm always looking for good material for our family to help us understand what our granddaughter who was diagnosed with Tourette's last year is experiencing. This book was helpful for all 3 generations of us!

A must read for all ages!

If you would like to know what it feels like to live with Tourette Syndrome and/or OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder), you must read this book. The book may be geared toward pre-teens and teens, but adults will love it just as well!I was actually disappointed when the book ended. I wanted more!

SO GREAT SO FAR

I cheacked this book out last week and am only on th 3rd chapter. This book has been great so far. It is about a girl who has a disability. She has to learn to accept herself as she is. It is hard because teachers think she is a clss clown, old friends are embarressed about her "ticks", her parents try to act like it is not a big deal, and to top it off, her sister is a total obsesser. She is obessed with good and healthy food, she eats food that has certain tastes and colors. Carie trys to believe that her life will be normal again, SOMEDAY! I find this book to be great. It tells alot about Carie and alot about this disability. I don't know what it is called at the moment but it is sad. I feel like I am her in this story. I feel like I am this girl who blinks and pulls her bangs every second. This book makes you the character and that is rare in most books. I think you should buy this. It really teaches you about every one who has this disease, not just Carie. Pluss in the back of the book it talks all about this disease. You can learn alot. You can use the book for a book report and the information in the back of QUIT IT for health and/or science homework. This book is the best so far!!!!!

An informational fiction book

Carrie, a seventh grader, has been recently diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome. So not only does she have to deal with her changing body, changing friendships, and changing school work load, she also has to live with uncontrollable tics and movements. Everyone in her immediate class knows what Carrie has, but she worries what others will think when they see her. This comes to a head during play practice one day--Carrie can't control herself, and begins to clear her throat and crack her shoulder over and over. Ms. Anderson, the school counselor and play director, gives a little lesson on Tourette, and the cast seem to be enlightened, and Carrie is grateful. The kids in this book are all middle schoolers, but they felt like high schoolers, partly in what they dealt with, their actions, and their maturity. But you were still sympathetic towards them. I loved the fact that the kids (especially Carrie) thought Ms. Anderson was cool (as well as helpful). Too often adults are trying to hard (according to the kids) or are bumbling. I also enjoyed watching the friendships change and develop in the book--it made it more well rounded. At the end of the book is extra information, as well as an address kids or parents can write to for even more information about Tourette.

For All Ages

Carrie, the heroine of Quit It, is in the seventh grade. I assume, then, that the book is targeted at girls and boys from, say, grades 3 through 10. I, however, am in grade 56, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book - read the whole thing in one sitting, in fact.Quit It reads easily. The author assumes intelligence in her readers and writes accordingly. The story is interesting and the characters believable.Byalick has several points to make, the most obvious being the education of the reader about Tourette Syndrome. And that she does, both in the body of the text as well as in an informative question/answer postscript. But the book goes beyond that. She draws the characters and situations in such a way that the reader can identify with both sides. We are familiar with the position of onlooker. Who of us hasn't seen someone who is different and wondered what to do? To look or not look? To say something or not? But more profoundly, most readers can also understand how Carrie feels - because we, too, have at some point felt different and ashamed. We may not have Tourette Syndrome, but most of us at one time or another have felt humiliated in front of our peers: we were too fat or too short or too poor, or our parents were divorced or they drank.So the moral of the book is that we are all human.I highly recommend it to people from grades 3 through 75.