The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love

by Dyan Sheldon

Overview

In a new comedy from the best-selling author of CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN, two popular girls vie to out-green each other to snare a boy.

Fashion-crazy Sicilee is a poster child for over-consumption. Her archrival, Maya, wears arty vintage clothes but hasn’t a clue what’s in the food she eats. So when drop-dead gorgeous new student Cody Lightfoot sets out to spread his eco-ways--and spur the Environmental Club toward an all-out Earth Day bash--Sicilee and Maya have their work cut out to attract his attention. What if Sicilee trades her fur boots for walking shoes (even if she can’t find the school when she’s not inside a car)? What if Maya dresses in plastic bottles and bags to preach in front of the supermarket (until security is called)? Or could it be that Cody isn’t all he’ s cracked up to be, and that saving the planet really is more important than impressing a boy? With her trademark quick-fire wit, Dyan Sheldon shows just what girls will do for love--and what earth-changing realizations they might have along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763656263
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	12/13/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Dyan Sheldon is the author of many novels for young adult readers, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, which was made into a major motion picture. American by birth, Dyan Sheldon lives in London.

“When I look at my high-school yearbooks, it’s like looking at a travel brochure for another planet,” Dyan Sheldon says. “I was painfully shy and introverted, so it wasn’t so much that I couldn’t or wouldn’t fit into the mainstream, it was more that I was so far away from it I didn’t really know it existed.”

Luckily for the teenage Dyan Sheldon, a new girl moved to town who was as flamboyantly outgoing as the author was shy—and as opposites often attract, the two became best friends. Theatrical, uninhibited, and outspoken, Dyan Sheldon’s high-school friend would become the model for the unforgettable Lola in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, a hilarious young adult novel that has taken on new life as a major motion picture (and a #1 New York Times bestseller). “They’re more soul sisters than carbon copies,” says the author of the character Lola and her real-life inspiration. “But the way they’re most alike is that my friend absolutely changed my life (and possibly saved it) in the way that Lola changes Ella’s.”

Intriguingly, Dyan Sheldon followed up Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen with My Perfect Life, a sequel that puts Ella (the character the author most identifies with) in the narrator’s role and gives her “a chance to speak for herself.” Like its predecessor, My Perfect Life was quickly hailed by critics. “Sheldon has spun a delightfully zany spoof of high school, politics, and affluent suburbia, capturing teen angst with wit and poignancy,” said Booklist in a starred review.

Dyan Sheldon’s third book with Candlewick Press, Planet Janet, introduced a new set of characters, starring a self-absorbed British teen who shares her travails in a hilarious diary format that has been likened to a Bridget Jones’s Diary for the teenage set. Other books from Dyan Sheldon, Sophie Pitt-Turnbull Discovers America and I Conquer Britain, focus on comical cases of culture clash when a haughty British teen winds up deep in the heart of working-class Brooklyn for the summer, and her bohemian Brooklyn counterpart crosses the pond to visit an uptight English family. The outrageously funny tales draw on the author’s personal experience of navigating a foreign culture: Dyan Sheldon is a former Brooklyn resident who now resides in London.

“There are enormous pressures on everyone—girls and boys—to behave a certain way as they move toward adulthood,” Dyan Sheldon says of the age group toward which she directs these three books. “Compared to the time of my childhood, when galloping consumerism was still in its infancy, the marketing pressure on kids today is truly frightening.” Still, the author hopes that readers who relate to her characters will find through her books some comic relief from adolescent stress. “It’s been a long time since I was a teenager, but despite this I like to think that my books are emotionally honest and true,” she says. “I believe the only way you can ‘help’ anyone is to share with them what you’ve experienced and learned.”

More recent titles from Dyan Sheldon include My Worst Best Friend, One or Two Things I Learned About Love, The Crazy Things Girls Do for Love, and The Truth About My Success.

Besides writing books for teens, Dyan Sheldon has authored a number of stories for younger readers and also writes for adults. When she’s not writing, the author likes to dabble in ceramics, practice yoga, and ride her motorcycle. Born in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, Dyan Sheldon now lives in London.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Superior comic writing combined with a major snark factor turns this full-on chick-lit outing into major fun...Plenty of witty merriment for all high-school social sets.
—Kirkus Reviews

Falling in love blends with saving the earth in Sheldon's latest novel, and both dramas are passionate, urgent, transforming, and hilarious.
—Booklist

The whole story is hilarious and totally relatable. Every girl has done something a little insane to attract the attention of a cute guy, but we love that Maya and Sicilee accidentally end up doing some good for the world in the process!
—Seventeen.com

Editorial Reviews

Gr 8–10—When a hot new student with an interest in vegan food and hemp clothing joins the environmental club, attendance at the previously unpopular organization suddenly skyrockets as girls attempt to get his attention. Among those after Cody's heart are slacker Waneeda and the school's reigning and rival queen bees: pretty, rich Sicilee and artsy, hipster Maya. While the title implies that this is a romance, it's more of a humorous, insightful story about characters initially trying to impress a boy but gradually realizing that there is more going on in the world than just their own little spheres of interest. The main characters start out as caricatures but begin to flesh out as the story progresses, facing pressure from friends and peers, exploring their own limits and preconceptions, and gaining confidence in themselves and the choices they make. This book contains a solid environmental message in a lightweight package, encouraging readers to become informed without dictating choices. The author provides resources for following up on issues mentioned in the book, including books, websites, and documentaries. A good recommendation for readers interested in books about friendship, peer pressure, and characters standing up for what they think is right.—Natasha Forrester, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR

School Library Journal

Going green is initially more about romance than righteousness for high school rivals Sicilee and Maya, but their attempts to do so provide lots of laughs. It all begins when the girls vie for the attention of gorgeous new student Cody Lightfoot (“His are the kind of impossible good looks that make even the least impressionable of people think, My God! Is that what humans are supposed to look like?”). When he shows an interest in joining the school’s environmental club—previously “the most pathetic club in the whole universe”—and starts planning an Earth Day fair, the competition is on. Using drily funny third-person narration to expose various characters’ hypocrisies, Sheldon (My Worst Best Friend) shows impeccable comic timing and a strong sense of irony as she traces Sicilee’s and Maya’s education in veganism and their mostly unsuccessful attempts to persuade friends and family that their newfound desire to reduce, reuse, and recycle is sincere. Underlying the episodes is a relevant message about dwindling resources, as both heroines begin to realize that their environmental efforts may be more vital than snagging a boy. Ages 12–14. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Superior comic writing combined with a major snark factor turns this full-on chick-lit outing into major fun...Plenty of witty merriment for all high-school social sets.
—Kirkus Reviews

Falling in love blends with saving the earth in Sheldon's latest novel, and both dramas are passionate, urgent, transforming, and hilarious.
—Booklist

Going green is initially more about romance than righteousness for high school rivals Sicilee and Maya, but their attempts to do so provide lots of laughs. Using drily funny third-person narration to expose various characters’ hypocrisies, Sheldon shows impeccable comic timing and a strong sense of irony…
—Publishers Weekly

The whole story is hilarious and totally relatable. Every girl has done something a little insane to attract the attention of a cute guy, but we love that Maya and Sicilee accidentally end up doing some good for the world in the process!
—Seventeen.com

Dyan Sheldon, who has made a name for herself with breezy, funny, smart fiction like CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN, is back in fine form with THE CRAZY THINGS GIRLS DO FOR LOVE. Her often snarky narration, which shifts back and forth among a handful of characters, cleverly showcases each character’s delusions, shortcomings and misperceptions...Fortunately, Sheldon manages to educate her characters, including interesting factoids about the planet that just might enlighten many readers as well.
—TeenReads.com

From the Publisher

Superior comic writing combined with a major snark factor turns this full-on chick-lit outing into major fun. Fashion addict Sicilee and her despised mega-rival, artsy Maya, dominate the popular set of their high school. Meanwhile, the out group, including frumpy Waneeda and eco-warrior Clemens, live in obscurity, eating at the nerd table in the cafeteria. Enter new student Cody, the most pulse-throbbing, eyeball-popping, drop-dead gorgeous boy anyone at the school has ever seen. Instantly, all the girls fall for him, including, secretly, Waneeda. Sicilee and Maya, however, enter an all-or-nothing war to snag Cody as a boyfriend. Suave, charming Cody, meanwhile, treats everyone the same, including the out group, but shows no interest in anything other than the nerdy environmental club. Sicilee and Maya focus their efforts into working for the formerly scorned club in their attempts to attract Cody, and they begin to find interests beyond their accustomed resolute superficiality. Sheldon lustily lampoons high-school social systems, flinging zinger metaphors onto nearly every page, such as describing the social hierarchy as "slightly more rigid than that of feudal Europe," but she also gets under her characters' skins. Despite the breezy tone, the story ends up with a hint of depth and an emphasis on going green. Plenty of witty merriment for all high-school social sets. (Chick-lit comedy. 12-18)

Kirkus Reviews