Girls Like Me

by Yves Lola StVil

Overview

Fifteen-year-old Shay Summers is trying to cope with the death of her father, being overweight, and threats from a girl bully in school. When she falls in love with Blake, a mysterious boy online, insecure Shay doesn't want to tell him who she is. But with the help of her two best friends, as well as an assist by Kermit and Miss Piggy, ultimately Shay and Blake’s love prevails.
     Girls Like Me is a fun and fresh poetic take on teen angst, social media and online anonymity, and high school romance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780544868144
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/04/2016
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Lola StVil was seven when she first came to the US from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She attended Columbia College in Chicago, where her main focus was creative writing. She is the author of the best-selling Guardians series and the Noru series.

Read an Excerpt

Aftermath

I whip out fake smile reserved for
Monday mornings, cheerleaders
Stepmoms
Kara stitches series of mom-esque words
Forming dubious praise

“Your face is so pretty this morning”
= You look fat

“I made egg white omelets and wheat toast”
= So you will no longer be fat

“It’s nice out. You should walk home today.”
= So you can be less fat

Kara is stuck
With me
Shay Summers: pretty-faced fat girl who
Reads. Writes. Thinks.
Too much

Dad died
Selfish, Dad, very selfish.

“Don’t be late for school”
= Don’t stay behind, pig out, get more fat

Flashes her best fake smile
The one she keeps in the freezer
So that it stays
Frozen
In
Place

“See you later”

Finally alone, I call on my friends:
Breakfast burrito. Banana cream pie. Butter.

They are all missing
There’s been a massacre

Kara’s soldiers:
Fat-free
Sugar-free
Reduced
Lite
Skim

Wiped out all my friends
Not even condiments
Remain

I recall
My love

Could it survive savage, unprovoked attack?
Scour area
Attempt rescue

No survivors
Rest in peace,
Apple-wood bacon

Flash of red packaging
Resembles my lover’s face

A prayer
A hope
Fragile but real

Pull in closer
Oscar Mayer Bacon!
Turkey bacon?
All is lost . . .

Editorial Reviews

"...readers will find this fast read thoroughly authentic and enjoyable." —VOYA "[Shay's] clever, matter-of-fact voice soars, and readers will find it impossible not to root for her as she learns to accept herself and believe that other people can do the same." —Booklist "This funny, heart-wrenching novel celebrates those who don’t fit into society’s mold and the people who love them as they are. Even if the popular crowd at Shay’s school doesn’t appreciate her wit, compassion, and courage, readers will." —Publishers Weekly "Dynamic story of grief, loyalty, and, finally, some cheerworthy victories." —Kirkus   —

From the Publisher

2016-08-02
With her father dead, her friends being yanked away, and fatphobia battering her, a teen finds affection and strength with a boy she meets online.Fifteen-year-old Shay lost Dad a year ago, and she’s not close to her stepmother, who seems only to wish that Shay were thinner. At school, nemesis Kelly leaves oinking stuffed pigs on her chair and changes Shay’s cell ringtone to pig sounds. Best friends Dash and Boots are being stolen: Boots by brain cancer, which is killing her, and Dash by his father, who sends him to military school for being gay. Shay connects with a boy online (screen name “Godotwait4me”)—until their growing closeness infuriates Kelly so much she launches a website she calls Get the Pig Back in Its Pen, dedicated to breaking them up. StVil’s verse prose is inventive and alive, sometimes cryptic, sometimes lurching, sometimes stunning; it rhymes only rarely yet with the effect of a gut punch (“Car. Speed. Head. / Docs. Tried. Dad. Dead”). Food-based figures of speech are gorgeous; unfortunately, they underscore the stereotype of Shay as a fat comfort-eater, but refreshingly, the plot has no weight-loss arc. Shay and Godot’s text threads hum with mutual attraction, high wit, and each one’s self-defeating fragilities. Shay’s race is undesignated, although she looks white on the cover. A dynamic story of grief, loyalty, and, finally, some cheerworthy victories. (Verse fiction. 13-16)

Kirkus Review