The Year of Secret Assignments

Okay.

This book is okay. It is a good book to just read for fun. There is no lessons or anything to gain from it. It was a fun read because it contains letters and email and other cool things besides the actually writing. It was a clever story line, but not one of my favorite books. If you like this book, read The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie. They are tied together to make it even more interesting.

3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.

The Year of the Secret Assignments

At first glance I was easily drawn to this novel. With an unique story plot unlike most books, it caught my attention and created curiosity. With few naration paragraphs, letters from three girls to three boys dominated this novel. As a class assignment issued from the teachers, Cassie, Lydia, and Emily exchange letters to Matthew, Sebastian, and Charlie during the pen pal program. Since the girls and boys are from rival schools, the six immediately send hate words to one another creating a messy distruction. Though this story seemed very interesting and the format of it was captivating at first, by the middle of the book, it grew tiresome. Just for one event to take place took multiple pages of the book and I felt the narration should have taken at least half the numbers of them. Besides my opinion on the format of The Year of the Secret Assignments, I believe Jaclyn Moriarty was brilliant pairing each girl with a boy. The numerous unexpected events truly brought out excitement in this novel making it a great piece of literature. The little bits of humor throughout the book made me laugh and Moriarty did an excellent job bringing out the images of six high school students. This is great when you have free time on your hands and wish to stress free.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Awesome

This book is funny and very witty yet there are intense parts. Definetly worth the buy

Pointlesss

This book was crap

Amazingtastic

This book was soooo good that i reread right after i finished it for the first time. Jaclyn moriarty is SUCH a good writer! <3'ed it!

Coolio

This is such a good book. It gets a little confusing sometimes.

Wait

It meant to say it

Funny, Fast read.

I checked this book out from my library due to a recommendation from a friend. The cover design really caught my attention. But the style that is was written in-letters, email, bulletins-is what made it a super fast read.This book was incredibly funny as well, enough to make me laugh out loud. There was enough suspense to hold my attention and keep me flipping the pages.There were a lot of negative themes though, such as shoplifting, pranking, cheating, ect. But with out it, it wouldn't have allowed the characters to be the unique, trouble some people they are.Overall this book was a easy, funny, enjoyable, fast-read. And I would definitely recommend it to my friends.

Loved it

I love this book. I read it in the library and had to buy my own copy. I love the characters and the way it's written in letters, etc. I would definitely recommend this.

Excellent! Really Funny!

I found The Year of Secret Assignments to be captivating from the start. It combines sarcastic humor with mystery, and a pinch of romance. There are parts in the story where I find myself laughing out loud. The first time I read it I could not put it down until I finished it. I was hooked after the first ten pages. The plot is about three high school girls named Cassie, Emily, and Lydia. They attend Ashbury High School in Sydney Australia. They have an annual pen pal program with their rival school Brookfield High. Incidentally the girls end up writing to three boys named Matthew, Charlie, and Sebastian. They meet up and it leads to conflicts between the schools. The book is written in a series of diary entries, transcripts, e-mails, and letters between schools. There is no actual dialogue. I thought that without dialogue the story was explained better. People can read it with a different point of view. Having no dialogue made it all the more interesting. Though sometimes I got confused and had to reread and clarify. The language in this book wasn't always appropriate. (I couldn't tell what some of the words were because the libraries copy was vandalized.) I would recommend this book for people thirteen and up who are interested in a humorous book. This is definitely a page turner

Fun-filled read

Such an awesome book! I was laughing more than half of the time. Great characters and plot. I love how it's all letters and such instead of the regular set-up. Although I wish she would have gone more into detail about their dates. I wish there was a sequel! Or at least a better ending, although I'm the kind of person who hates when the authors leaves you hanging, so don't think that the book is bad. Actually, it's really, really good. ^^

difficult

Some parts i didn't get and i don't remember any kissing.

AMAZING BOOK!

i found this book when i was a sophomore in high school, ate through it in around 2 days. loaned it to a friend. and then never got it back and have since lost touch with the friend. i read a book similar to this called dash and lilys book of dares (same authors who wrote nick and norah's infinite playlist) and it reminded me of this book but i had forgotten the title until today. so glad i found it again :D highly recommended!!!!!!

amazing

this was a really great book. i finished it really fast.

I LOVE this book!!!

This book is so so so good. I love the characters (well, most of them) and the story is really different from things that I normally read. This author is great. But I suggest reading "Feeling Sorry for Celia" first. That one is great too. Everyone should read this book. :)

What could have been great turned out to be childish and annoying

This book has a funny style of writing that is at first captivating, but half way through the book becomes annoying. You get the feeling that you just want a narroator to jump in half way and tell the story instead of the childish lingo that takes place between the characters.

I also found the background plot to be very childish. Older teens and younger adults will be let down by the essitential plot as it has a huge buuild up that something tragic has happened to one of the main characters and all that happened was some mean boy called her names basically. A very childish end up to something that could have turned this book into a great piece of fiction. Is was at this point I went "GIVE ME A BREAK" and raced to get this book over and down with!

LOVED IT!

This book is soo good i loved it. it was cute and sad and diffrent liked it alot love the end C:

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Well-written Story

Incredible- a must read.

Reviewed by Cana Rensberger for TeensReadToo.com

THE YEAR OF SECRET ASSIGNMENTS by Jaclyn Moriarty has an interesting format. It is written entirely without dialogue. "What?" you say. It's true. The entire novel uses letters, diaries, journals, emails, and transcripts to tell the story. It's quite intriguing.

Three best friends, Cass, Emily, and Lydia, embark on an adventure that begins as a pen pal assignment in their English class. They each end up with male pen pals from their rival, Brookfield High. It quickly becomes evident which of the girls is writing, as the voices of the girls are quite distinct. I had a little more difficulty identifying two of the boys and remembering which girl they were writing to. The third boy's voice was quite distinctive.

Through a series of secret assignments the year 10 pen pals get to know one another, challenging each other to attempt various tasks. Just as they become comfortable with one another, feelings get hurt and the letters come to a halt. One pair of letters becomes downright frightening. When a true identity is uncovered, letters resume with a flurry of intensity, until vandalism begins at both schools and all students are ordered to stop writing. When the three girls are summoned to the office, they must rely on their pen pals to uncover the truth.

I would recommend this book to my students. The voices are fun and authentic. Although the pacing of the book is somewhat slow at the beginning, probably due to trying to keep the characters straight, it picks up significantly as they forge relationships with their pen pals. The ending is both surprising and satisfying.

wow.

i was amazed by this book. i now absouloustley love this author. THIS IS A MUUUUUUST READ! i couldn't stop reading. its funny, its sad. everything (: READ.