the perks of being a wallflower

Chbosky, Stephen. (1999). the perks of being a wallflower. New York: Pocket Books.

Annotation: Charlie is a freshman in high school and uneasy about the transition. He meets many new friends and has new experiences which he shares with “Friend” whom he anonymously writes letters to all year.

Justification for Nomination: I feel that I am a bad person to be reviewing this book. I really don’t know how much a teen reader would connect with it. I am only twenty, so have been reviewing books based on what I would have read and enjoyed and connected with a few years ago. With the issues I this book, my experience was a unique one, so I can’t really connect with the masses here. I’m going to nominate it, though, because I think it has potential to connect with adolescents.

Personally, I was home schooled so did not ever deal with most of the things Charlie went through! Not to mention I’m a girl…

This book is very real and raw though. It is basically a diary for Charlie, as he writes letters anonymously to his anonymous “friend.” It deals with many typical issues of high school – fitting in, being introverted, drugs and alcohol, sex and hormones, and past and current abuse. This is the age where a lot of these things are coming to a head in an adolescents life. For this reason, I think almost everyone (except apparently me!) could find something to connect with in Charlie’s life.

This book was also a quick read and written in first person which makes it easier for the teen reader to connect and walk away with something.

I also was impressed at how many books and songs and movies from popular culture were referenced in this book. It left me wanting to read them! I thought that was a cool outcome of the book.

Genre: Censored or Challenged Title