Zipped

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Overview

WHEN 15-YEAR-OLD MICK Nichols opens the wrong e-mail, he learns a terrible secret: His stepmother is having an affair with a man named Alexander Selkirk. Mick is stunned. Should he tell his father, confront his stepmother, or keep it all to himself? And who, exactly, is Alexander Selkirk? Mick becomes obsessed with the infidelity, in spite of some serious distractions. Distractions like Lisa Doyle, the religious field-hockey player with the coppery red hair. Like the surprising (but appreciated) affections of Myra Vidal, a famously gorgeous college freshman with a secret of her own. And at the moment Mick discovers Selkirk’s true identity, he realizes his problems are all zipped up together—and that he may have to go to drastic lengths to untangle them.

“The McNeals spin a wonderfully rich story.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A well-honed novel. . . . Readers will be sucked in.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Hardcover edition.

At the end of their sophomore year in high school, the lives of four teenagers are woven together as they start a tough new job, face family problems, deal with changing friendships, and find love.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

For 15-year-old Mick Nichols, everything changes the moment he opens up the wrong email. In the misplaced missive is evidence that Mick's beautiful and loving stepmother is having an affair. But what should Nick do with this dangerous information? Should he confront his stepmother? tell his father? or track down the other man? Obsessed with the infidelity, Mick must also cope with other distractions, including the welcome (but confusing) affection of hot college freshman Myra Vidal. An absorbing read.

Publishers Weekly

This novel's narrative alternates between three teens, each of whom face their own trials. According to PW, "The authors skillfully weave together several story lines into a well-honed novel." Ages 12-up. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

More Reviews (4) Fewer Reviews

KLIATT

To quote the review of the hardcover in KLIATT, January 2003: The McNeal husband-and-wife writing team won a lot of praise for their first YA novel, Crooked. Each is an accomplished writer, and Laura has also taught English in middle school and high school in addition to being a journalist. This background is evident in Zipped, with frequent allusions to literary works that typical high school students would recognize, with a challenging plot and theme, and with well-developed characters who are articulate and thoughtful. The narrative is in the third person, and the point of view shifts among several characters—Mick, Lisa, Maurice, and Janice, with many chapters. Details of plot, numerous characters, thoughts and feelings are zipped together to make one cohesive story, and it seems clear that the authors are making that classic point that everything is connected—everything is zipped together. We may not see how at first, or in the middle of the story; but in the end the connection is clear. The story line is difficult to summarize concisely, but here are several main elements to the story: Mick has discovered that his adored and attractive stepmother is having an affair and his home life and emotional security are threatened; Mick has a crush on a classmate, Lisa, but also has a friendship with a most attractive college student who is trying to escape from her own demons; Lisa is a Mormon who is attracted to a young Mormon missionary living in the area, but her friendship with Mick is growing and developing into something more romantic; Mick and Lisa work for a disturbed person, Maurice, who is having a love affair with Lisa's best friend Janice. Themes of goodand evil and the gray zone in between, of betrayal, of forgiveness, of love, of tolerance, abound. The McNeals have given YA readers a challenging YA novel, with a strange little figure of a baby devil on the cover. KLIATT Codes: JS*—Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2003, Random House, Knopf, 283p., Ages 12 to 18.
—Claire Rosser

VOYA

As summer vacation nears, leather-jacket clad Mick faces challenges and opportunities. He applies for a grounds-crew position at a retirement community, the girl he has been admiring from afar is hired on the same crew, and his history paper revision disappears somewhere in the computer-fairly typical events in the life of a bike-bound fifteen-year-old. In many ways, however, Mick's life is anything but typical. Years ago his mother all but abandoned her family for a high-paced job in a distant city, his mechanic father remarried a woman Mick drools over, and Mick discovers trashed e-mail correspondence between his stepmother and her lover as he searches for that missing history paper-too much revelation. How Mick handles the infidelity-taken extremely personally-drives the novel. Numerous subplots enhance the novel, including a crime wave at the retirement community, budding romances, grounds-crew supervisor Maurice's power trips (he speaks of himself in second person and deserves a novel of his own), a developing friendship between Mick and an older beauty queen, and some strong characterizations. Unnecessary or underdeveloped subplots, such as sexual harassment on several fronts and a crush on a Mormon elder, detract. The McNeals' subject matter itself is engaging and sexually charged-multiple, overt references to hickeys, crotches, nipples, underwear, and more ring out as overplayed and heavy-handed. Morally ambiguous characters and Mick's haunting dilemma provide intrigue. Readers who flock to Chris Crutcher's books and those interested in Mormon characters and themes will be drawn to this book. VOYA Codes: 3Q 4P M J S (Readable without serious defects; Broad general YA appeal;Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). 2003, Knopf, 192p,
— Patti Sylvester Spencer <%ISBN%>0375814914

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-Well-realized, sympathetic teen and adult characters populate this novel packed with family problems, romance, and wry humor. Fifteen-year-old Mick Nichols opens his stepmother's e-mail by mistake and discovers that Nora is having an affair. Unable to confront her or tell his father, he turns surly and uncommunicative at home. Meanwhile, he's embarked on a confusing friendship with a college girl and a budding romance with a high school classmate, the beautiful Lisa Doyle. Mick has a troubled relationship with his mother, who left the family years ago, and has always admired-as well as had a mild crush on-his young, attractive stepmother. Her affair shatters his illusions. While he searches for clues to the identity of Nora's lover, he also gets to know Lisa better on their weekend job. Obstacles stand in the way of love, including her interest in an off-limits Mormon missionary. Mick commits an uncharacteristic act of vandalism aimed at his stepmother's lover, and ultimately has an emotionally satisfying confrontation with Nora. The teen's romance with Lisa finally takes off, and several other subplots wrap up as well, sometimes too neatly. Mick learns that the adults whom he has idolized have their own problems, and that relationships are far more complex than he ever imagined. Refreshingly, Mick's father and stepmother are fully fleshed out characters, not stereotypes. This is a believable novel that will especially appeal to teens interested in moral ethics and human dynamics.-Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Mick Nichols has women problems. His mother, who left his father and lives far away, can't seem to remember his age. Lisa Doyle, the cute field hockey player, seems not to notice him, and Myra Vidal, college sophomore and former beauty queen, is paying him all kinds of attention. But far, far worse-his attractive stepmother, whom he adores, is carrying on a torrid affair. Every one of the women here has a problematic love life. Lisa, for example, likes Mick, but loves Elder Keesler, an older boy and a missionary in her church, Lisa's friend Janice is going out with a muscle-bound slime ball. Mick acts as a sort of bell-weather for all of them as the plot unfolds. Eventually, everything falls into place: Lisa gets over her fixation on the missionary, Myra comes out to Mick, and Mick and his step-mother are reconciled as Mick learns that life can be very complicated and that even good people make big mistakes. The McNeals (Crooked, 1999) spin a wonderfully rich story. It is a little bothersome that only Mick and his father seem to lead straightforward lives unmarred by moral uncertainty, (apart from Mick's impulsive act of vandalism meant to punish his stepmother's paramour) while the various females in the story are tortured by a variety of conflicted feelings and bad choices. The authors steer clear of moralizing, however, and wrap everything up in a most satisfying way. (Fiction. 13+)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780375830983
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Publication date: 9/14/2004
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 304
Sales rank: 1,179,682
Age range: 12 years
Lexile: 0810L (what's this?)
Product dimensions: 5.13 (w) x 8.00 (h) x 0.67 (d)

Meet the Author

Tom McNeal and Laura Rhoton McNeal are married and live in southern California with their two young sons. Their first young adult novel, Crooked, won the California Book Award in Juvenile Literature and was named an ALA Top Ten Best Book for Young Adults.

From the Hardcover edition.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER ONE

Baked in a Pie

It wasn't a normal Thursday, but all day long it had seemed like one, so when the final bell rang, Mick Nichols did what he normally did. He walked from Jemison High to Melville Junior High by way of the athletic fields, fast-walking at first, but then, as he neared the muddy grass where the girls' field hockey team was collecting for spring practice, he settled into something closer to a purposeful stroll.

He hoped he wasn't too early, and he wasn't. Lisa Doyle was there--he caught a flash of her coppery red hair through the shifting shoulders and sticks, and suddenly everywhere and all at once a strange prickling sensation began spreading across his skin. She bent down to pick up her stick, and when she happened to flick a glance in his general direction, Mick's face went wooden. He kept his eyes directly forward and walked stiffly on without another look her way. Beneath his old bomber jacket, beneath his khaki T-shirt, a cool bead of sweat coursed down his rib cage. Dink, he thought as he reached the chain-link fence that marked the boundary of the high school. Dink dink dink.

Melville Junior High was located just across the street to the east of Jemison High, so by this time of day Jemison's shadow already reached across Melville's front lawn. Mick cut through Melville's parking lot and wandered down to the art room, where his stepmother, Nora Mercer-Nichols, was cleaning up after a day of what she liked jokingly to call "teaching art to the artless." She was stuffing dirty wool into black Hefty bags. When she saw Mick she pushed her sandy blond hair up with the back of her hand and said, "Hello, Maestro!" Then, "Hi, Mick."

Nora Mercer-Nichols was in her early thirties, but she seemed younger. She'd married Mick's father four years before. The first time Mick had met her, she and his father had come in quietly behind him when he was playing the piano in the living room. He'd thought he was alone, and when he finally got through one of Bach's Inventions without a flub, he leaned back on the piano bench and exultantly shot a fist into the air, which drew sudden laughter from Nora and his father. Mick had swung around, surprised and embarrassed. When his father introduced her, he said, "Nora, this is my son, Mick," and she'd smiled and said, "Well, I think I'm going to have to call him Maestro," which she still did. Mick had heard a lot of Bad Stepmother stories, but he liked Nora. He never thought of her as his mother or even his stepmother. She was just Nora, and almost any room was more interesting if she were in it.

Today, standing just inside her classroom door, next to a cabinet lined with bird's nests in clear Plexiglas boxes, Mick read for probably the hundredth time the English and Latin labels he'd helped Nora make one night last fall: black-capped chickadee (Parus atricapillus). house sparrow (Passer domesticus). chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina). A few of the nests held faintly tinted eggs, some freckled, some not. Nora had been asked about the eggs so often that she'd made a small sign that said don't worry, you bird lovers you, I only collect abandoned nests.

Mick found himself staring at some faintly freckled eggs, which made him think of Nora's shoulders in summer, a thought he tried to shake off.

"So," Nora said. "Gimme the daily Doyle report."

Mick shrugged. "Brief visual contact."

"Really? Well, did you smile back?"

"Not exactly."

They both fell silent. About three weeks ago, while driving home with Nora, Mick had told her in a matter-of-fact voice about "this kind of weird effect" that the sight of Lisa Doyle had on him. A laugh had burst from Nora. " 'The heart is the tyrant who spares no one,' " she recited.

"Who said that?"

Nora grinned and nodded toward a small, red ceramic devil that she'd recently set on her dashboard. "Probably little Beezlebub," she said. "Either that or some dead white guy."

Mick didn't know why she called the figurine Beezlebub. All he knew was, he didn't like the little guy. At first it just seemed like a toddler in a devil sleeper, but it always seemed to be peering at you with its black, curious eyes.

"Where'd you get that thing anyway?" he said.

"School," Nora said. "On desktop treasure trading day."

Mick stared at it for a second or two. "It's kind of grimy."

Nora chuckled. "The word I'd use is 'puckish.' " Then, after a block or two had passed, "Weren't we on the subject of one Lisa Doyle? What do you and Lisa talk about?"

"That's kind of the problem," Mick said, and felt his face color slightly. "I haven't actually ever talked to Lisa Doyle."

Nora shot him a look of surprise and then became serious. "Okay, Maestro. Here's the deal. You've been smitten. It may be a foolish infatuation or it may be the real thing. What you have to do is get to know her, and vice versa, which means something more extreme than hockey field walk-bys. You need proximity. If she's on the debate team, join the debate team. If she plays tennis, buy yourself a racket." They were at a stoplight and Nora had fixed Mick with her winsome smile. "If she plays pinochle, take up pinochle."

"I hear she's Mormon," Mick said.

Nora had laughed. "Then say your prayers, and make sure they're good ones," she had said.

The wool they were bagging this afternoon was surprisingly dirty, snagged with twigs and seeds and even clusters of what looked to Mick like sheep dung. He broke a silence by saying, "This stuff's pretty disgusting. What's it for anyway?"

"A new enrichment class." Nora pointed at the near bulletin board, where in large letters it said wool: from sheep to sweater. She laughed again. "You'll be happy to know it's open to students of both genders. The early colonists taught all their children to spin, including boys."

Mick said, "So this class would be a serious opportunity for any guy who might want to be a colonist when he grows up." He hoped this would be good for a chuckle from Nora, and it was. Then he said, "Well, maybe Dad or me'll get a sweater out of it." This was a joke. Although Nora had been working on something that was supposed to be a sweater, she wouldn't say who it was for or what it was supposed to look like, and more often than not she seemed to be unraveling it to correct a mistake.

"Ha," said Nora. "That'll depend on who does the supper dishes."

From the Hardcover edition.

First Chapter

CHAPTER ONE

Baked in a Pie

It wasn't a normal Thursday, but all day long it had seemed like one, so when the final bell rang, Mick Nichols did what he normally did. He walked from Jemison High to Melville Junior High by way of the athletic fields, fast-walking at first, but then, as he neared the muddy grass where the girls' field hockey team was collecting for spring practice, he settled into something closer to a purposeful stroll.

He hoped he wasn't too early, and he wasn't. Lisa Doyle was there--he caught a flash of her coppery red hair through the shifting shoulders and sticks, and suddenly everywhere and all at once a strange prickling sensation began spreading across his skin. She bent down to pick up her stick, and when she happened to flick a glance in his general direction, Mick's face went wooden. He kept his eyes directly forward and walked stiffly on without another look her way. Beneath his old bomber jacket, beneath his khaki T-shirt, a cool bead of sweat coursed down his rib cage. Dink, he thought as he reached the chain-link fence that marked the boundary of the high school. Dink dink dink.

Melville Junior High was located just across the street to the east of Jemison High, so by this time of day Jemison's shadow already reached across Melville's front lawn. Mick cut through Melville's parking lot and wandered down to the art room, where his stepmother, Nora Mercer-Nichols, was cleaning up after a day of what she liked jokingly to call "teaching art to the artless." She was stuffing dirty wool into black Hefty bags. When she saw Mick she pushed her sandy blond hair up with the back of her hand and said, "Hello, Maestro!" Then, "Hi,Mick."

Nora Mercer-Nichols was in her early thirties, but she seemed younger. She'd married Mick's father four years before. The first time Mick had met her, she and his father had come in quietly behind him when he was playing the piano in the living room. He'd thought he was alone, and when he finally got through one of Bach's Inventions without a flub, he leaned back on the piano bench and exultantly shot a fist into the air, which drew sudden laughter from Nora and his father. Mick had swung around, surprised and embarrassed. When his father introduced her, he said, "Nora, this is my son, Mick," and she'd smiled and said, "Well, I think I'm going to have to call him Maestro," which she still did. Mick had heard a lot of Bad Stepmother stories, but he liked Nora. He never thought of her as his mother or even his stepmother. She was just Nora, and almost any room was more interesting if she were in it.

Today, standing just inside her classroom door, next to a cabinet lined with bird's nests in clear Plexiglas boxes, Mick read for probably the hundredth time the English and Latin labels he'd helped Nora make one night last fall: black-capped chickadee (Parus atricapillus). house sparrow (Passer domesticus). chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina). A few of the nests held faintly tinted eggs, some freckled, some not. Nora had been asked about the eggs so often that she'd made a small sign that said don't worry, you bird lovers you, I only collect abandoned nests.

Mick found himself staring at some faintly freckled eggs, which made him think of Nora's shoulders in summer, a thought he tried to shake off.

"So," Nora said. "Gimme the daily Doyle report."

Mick shrugged. "Brief visual contact."

"Really? Well, did you smile back?"

"Not exactly."

They both fell silent. About three weeks ago, while driving home with Nora, Mick had told her in a matter-of-fact voice about "this kind of weird effect" that the sight of Lisa Doyle had on him. A laugh had burst from Nora. " 'The heart is the tyrant who spares no one,' " she recited.

"Who said that?"

Nora grinned and nodded toward a small, red ceramic devil that she'd recently set on her dashboard. "Probably little Beezlebub," she said. "Either that or some dead white guy."

Mick didn't know why she called the figurine Beezlebub. All he knew was, he didn't like the little guy. At first it just seemed like a toddler in a devil sleeper, but it always seemed to be peering at you with its black, curious eyes.

"Where'd you get that thing anyway?" he said.

"School," Nora said. "On desktop treasure trading day."

Mick stared at it for a second or two. "It's kind of grimy."

Nora chuckled. "The word I'd use is 'puckish.' " Then, after a block or two had passed, "Weren't we on the subject of one Lisa Doyle? What do you and Lisa talk about?"

"That's kind of the problem," Mick said, and felt his face color slightly. "I haven't actually ever talked to Lisa Doyle."

Nora shot him a look of surprise and then became serious. "Okay, Maestro. Here's the deal. You've been smitten. It may be a foolish infatuation or it may be the real thing. What you have to do is get to know her, and vice versa, which means something more extreme than hockey field walk-bys. You need proximity. If she's on the debate team, join the debate team. If she plays tennis, buy yourself a racket." They were at a stoplight and Nora had fixed Mick with her winsome smile. "If she plays pinochle, take up pinochle."

"I hear she's Mormon," Mick said.

Nora had laughed. "Then say your prayers, and make sure they're good ones," she had said.

The wool they were bagging this afternoon was surprisingly dirty, snagged with twigs and seeds and even clusters of what looked to Mick like sheep dung. He broke a silence by saying, "This stuff's pretty disgusting. What's it for anyway?"

"A new enrichment class." Nora pointed at the near bulletin board, where in large letters it said wool: from sheep to sweater. She laughed again. "You'll be happy to know it's open to students of both genders. The early colonists taught all their children to spin, including boys."

Mick said, "So this class would be a serious opportunity for any guy who might want to be a colonist when he grows up." He hoped this would be good for a chuckle from Nora, and it was. Then he said, "Well, maybe Dad or me'll get a sweater out of it." This was a joke. Although Nora had been working on something that was supposed to be a sweater, she wouldn't say who it was for or what it was supposed to look like, and more often than not she seemed to be unraveling it to correct a mistake.

"Ha," said Nora. "That'll depend on who does the supper dishes."

Reading Group Guide

1. In chapter one, Mick visits Nora’s classroom and talks to her about Lisa Doyle and his summer plans. What are some of the other memories he shares about time spent with Nora? Does he see her as a traditional stepmother? How does he feel about her and the experiences they’ve shared? How do his feelings change once he has read Nora’s e-mail? Mick asks Nora to drop the nickname Maestro, explaining, “I don’t like it. It’s not true” (p. 23). Is he talking only about the nickname here, or does his request have greater significance?

2. Why won’t Mick take off his coat at the end of chapter one? Look at the moments throughout the book when Mick pats the disk that is zipped into his jacket pocket. What is he thinking about when he does this? What is he really trying to keep zipped up? Does it work? Similarly, Myra puts her feelings for Pam into a letter. At the end of the novel, Mick and Myra send their disk and letter up into the sky with a bunch of balloons. What does this act symbolize for each of them?

3. On page 21, Mick takes a long look at this father, and later he challenges his father to a particularly competitive game of foosball in an attempt to “make him play a little harder” (p. 26). What is Mick trying to bring out in his father? Through whose point of view is Mick seeing his father now?

4. Internal conflict is a struggle within a character over an issue or a choice he or she must make. Lisa considers the forbidden fruits of the Mormon religion: “drinking, caffeine, boyfriends, and fun” (p. 33). How does she feel about these rules? What is Lisa’s internal struggle? By the end of the novel, do you think Lisa is on her way to resolving these problems? What choices do you think she will make? What are Myra’s internal conflicts? Mick’s? Nora’s? How are they resolved?

5. Betrayal is one of the themes of the novel. Which characters feel betrayed? How and by whom? How does each of these characters deal with his or her feelings? Would you be able to forgive an act of betrayal like Nora’s? Why or why not? Does Mick forgive her?

6. A symbol is a physical thing that stands for an idea or an emotion. Nora adds a new figurine to her car’s dashboard—a small plastic devil she calls Beelzebub. How does Mick feel about this item and why? Where do you think it came from? What does this figure symbolize to Nora? Do her feelings about it ever change? Where does this figure end up and what does its condition represent?

7. Birds’ nests appear throughout the story. Toward the end, a singing bird is building a new nest in the backyard. Contrast the image of the dried, abandoned nests in Nora’s classroom with the lively new nest at the end, in which “. . . the five white eggs were still together and intact” (p. 269). What do you think these images symbolize about the status of the Nichols family at different points in the novel?

8. The setting of a story—when and where it takes place—can establish its atmosphere, or mood. Where does this story take place? During what season? Mick observes, “The air was warm sometimes, but you couldn’t trust it ” (p. 7). How does this climate foreshadow, or hint at, the situation Mick is about to find himself in? How are the lines “Everything looked green—the trees, the yard, the valley and hillside beyond—everything” (p. 272), indicative of Mick’s new situation? Do the authors use the weather to set the mood in other parts of the story?

9. Do you think Maurice is racist or prejudiced? Why or why not? What are some of the characteristics that make the reader and characters dislike him? Describe Janice’s feelings for Maurice. Do they change when she looks into the orange juice container? Eventually, Lisa decides Maurice is not a total “sleazeball” (p. 273). Why does she come to this conclusion? Do you have sympathy for Maurice? Why or why not?

10. Lisa and Janice are best friends, but they don’t spend much time together as the book progresses. How do their differences become clearer? What kinds of choices do each of them make? Have any of your friendships ever taken similar turns? What do you think will happen to their relationship? Is Lisa a good friend? If not to Janice, then to whom? At the end of the novel, after Elder Keesler departs, Lisa visits Home Park Gardens “one last time” (p. 265). What does she see? How is this view different from what she used to see? What do you think this means?

11. Many of the characters in the book are different on the inside than they appear to be on the outside. Myra calls this phenomenon the “face behind the face behind the face” (p. 120). How do Nora and Myra fit this category? What does Mick expect from Nora and how is he surprised by her behavior? What does Mick assume Myra will be like and how does she surprise him? Does Mr. Cruso fit Mick’s assumptions? Nora says, “Adults are like everybody else, Mick. Usually they do what they’re supposed to do. Sometimes they don’t” (p. 255). What does this teach Mick about himself and other people?

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meggie3939

Posted January 30, 2009

I Also Recommend:

Zipped was Amazing

I loved the idea of incorporating all of these different charachters lives points of view and then suddenly having them all mesh into one. I also loved how when i started realizing the charachters were coming together how I had to think about how different people were going to join together. I loved it!
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Anonymous

Posted April 9, 2008

Not as Good as the First One

I thought that this book wasn¿t as good as the first one, but it was ok. Zipped is a little different with the main character and stuff but, this book basically has the same plot as Crooked. Zipped by Laura and Tom McNeal, is about a boy named Mick Nichols who reads a disturbing e-mail that his stepmother, Nora forgot to dispose of. He finds out that his stepmother is having an affair with a gut named Alexander Selkirk. Now Mick¿s life is having major ups and downs while he is trying to find this mysterious Selkirk guy when actually nothing really adds up. Laura and Tom have done an ok job with this book, but I think it was just a version of Crooked with a couple of changes
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Anonymous

Posted September 22, 2007

The Faces behind the Faces behind the Faces

The headline is from a major theme in this book, which really kept me reading. At first, you might just think it's about Mick Nichols and his everyday life and his issues, but as you continue to read, you unfold different layers, and every one of them was a surprise. I loved how all of the book's stories and point of views were brought together. This book was clever, insightful, and alot better than I make it sound. The McNeals created a fabulous book.
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Anonymous

Posted May 8, 2007

this was a pretty good book

I liked this book. It's about a guy named Mick Nichols. Mick opens an E-mail that he wasn't supposed to read. He finds out his stepmom is having an affair with a guy named Alexander Selkirk. I liked this book because it kept me reading until the end. I wouldn't recomend this book to everyone, though because not everyone will like it.
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Anonymous

Posted March 11, 2007

Some of my favorite authors....

Laura and Tom McNeal are definately now some of my favorite authors! I've also read Crooked and Crushed.... My favorite of the three was probably Zipped, followed closely by Crooked and then Crushed. I was a bit disappointed, however, that Zipped didn't share the same type of heart-pounding climax that Crushed and, particularly, Crooked had. I loved the characters in Zipped, though, and the storyline was fantastic also!
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Anonymous

Posted May 5, 2006

Great Read

i was extremely pleased with this novel. the truths behind the lines, the faces behind the faces behind the faces as Myra puts it, were what kept me guessing and reading.
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Anonymous

Posted March 14, 2006

Very Relatable

This book really captures the mind of a teenager. The inbetween tone and situations are very realistic for a teen and speaks greatly about trust and life. Good Book.
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Anonymous

Posted January 22, 2006

Great Book

This is a great book. The McNeals really illustrate the dilemma in Zipped, and in a reality type way at that. The characters are fun, and the chapters going back and forth between them make the book more interesting.
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Anonymous

Posted October 25, 2005

A lot of fun!

This is definatley an attention keeper. Read it twice and found it wonderful each time through!
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Anonymous

Posted June 8, 2004

Excellent Read

Very entertaing. It kept my attention the whole way through and was so entertaining that I read it all in one night.
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Anonymous

Posted May 11, 2004

SUPER!!!!

This book was AWESOME! I read the other novel by Laura and Tom McNeal (Crooked) also, and I loved it just as much. Positively a page-turner. You hafta read it!!! :)
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Anonymous

Posted January 14, 2004

*{ZiPPeD]|..

i really liked this novel. it really dealt with a lot of real-life things. i would recommend this to any teenager. buy this novel... read it front to back... you'll zip through..... it's got a really great ending too... but you'll have to read it to find out!
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Anonymous

Posted October 23, 2003

Makes Book Reports Fun

I'm about the same age as the main charecter, Mick, and i have to say that the authors deserve nothing more then a standing ovation for what they did in this book. I had to read it for a book report, and i've read it four times ever since
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Anonymous

Posted July 4, 2003

New favorite book

This was an awesome book. My parents got it for me and I absolutely loved it. It was down to earth and very realistic. Totally worth reading over and over. Especially if you're a teen.
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Anonymous

Posted April 12, 2003

...ZippEd...

I saw this book on the shelf while trying to decided among a pile of other ones, and it was well worth it. I read the first few pages just to get a feel of the novel, but then I just dropped all my other books and kept reading this one! It was impossible to put it down without coming back to it. The novel's approach was from teenage-perspective, and any teenager could relate to the feelings each of the characters were feeling. I can't really explain how this novel grasped me- but it did. I have never heard of these authors until now, and I intend to read more of their work, which I have heard is quite remarkable as well.
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Anonymous

Posted November 14, 2010

No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous

Posted November 11, 2009

No text was provided for this review.

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Zipped was Amazing

Not as Good as the First One

The Faces behind the Faces behind the Faces

this was a pretty good book

Some of my favorite authors....

Great Read

Very Relatable

Great Book

A lot of fun!

Excellent Read

SUPER!!!!

*{ZiPPeD]|..

Makes Book Reports Fun

New favorite book

...ZippEd...