Want to Go Private?

by Sarah Darer Littman

Overview

Abby and Luke chat online. They've never met. But they are going to. Soon.

Abby is starting high school--it should be exciting, so why doesn't she care? Everyone tells her to "make an effort," but why can't she just be herself? Abby quickly feels like she's losing a grip on her once-happy life. The only thing she cares about anymore is talking to Luke, a guy she met online, who understands. It feels dangerous and yet good to chat with Luke--he is her secret, and she's his. Then Luke asks her to meet him, and she does. But Luke isn't who he says he is. When Abby goes missing, everyone is left to put together the pieces. If they don't, they'll never see Abby again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545151467
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	08/01/2011
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)
Lexile:	HL750L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

Sarah Darer Littman is the critically acclaimed author of Backlash; Want to Go Private?; Anything But Okay; In Case You Missed It; Life, After; and Purge. She is also an award-winning news columnist and teaches writing at Western Connecticut State University and with the Yale Writers' Conference. Sarah lives in Connecticut with her family, in a house that never seems to have enough bookshelves. You can visit her online at sarahdarerlittman.com.

Editorial Reviews

Littman (Life, After) pens a harrowing cautionary tale about the dangers that lurk online. Fourteen-year-old Abby feels insecure and unhappy as she starts high school, failing to fit in and drifting apart from her best friend Faith. Abby finds an outlet in ChezTeen.com ("kind of like Second Life, but for teens"), where she meets Luke, a sympathetic listener who flatters her. She becomes entirely dependent on him, letting her grades slip, withdrawing from the real world, and rationalizing away red flags that arise: he is twice her age, he tells her he loves her almost immediately, and he asks for (and receives) sexual favors. She decides to meet him. Structured in three parts with alternating narrators (before, during, and after Abby's disappearance) to create suspense, this message-driven story guarantees invested readers. While the novel's trajectory is predictable and no reader will think for a second that Luke aka BlueSkyBoi is a good guy, Abby's actions are entirely believable. To a degree, the novel relies on readers' feeling smarter than Abby, yet Littman demonstrates how easy it is to fall under the sway of a charming predator. Ages 14-up. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for Sarah Darer Littman
Backlash
"Littman pens a raw, frighteningly realistic, and absorbing look at cyberbullying and the damaging effects of airing private trauma in a public forum." -Publishers Weekly
"[T]his is a powerful and credible story" -Booklist

Want to Go Private?
"A bold investigation of potentially lethal, if common, mixture for teen girls: emotionally immaturity, technology and emerging sexuality." -Los Angeles Times
"This book is a compelling, if not disturbing, read." - School Library Journal

Life, After
"Convincing and absorbing." -Publishers Weekly
"Littman catches the voice of teen readers with her spot-on dialogue and realistic situations." -The Jewish Journal

Purge
"An intimate and powerful novel." -The Stamford Times
"With an underlying but not heavy-hand message, this may start a few conversations." -Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Gr 10 Up—Abby is ambivalent about her first day of high school. She has never been part of the cool crowd like her younger sister, Lily. Her best friend since second grade, Faith, encourages Abby to try new things and make new friends. But discouraged by her lack of popularity, a horrifying attempt to audition for the school play, and her parents' inattentiveness, Abby retreats to her online sanctuary, ChezTeen.com, where she meets Luke Redmond. Unlike her family and increasingly distant best friend, Luke completely understands Abby's concerns about high school and assures her that she is smart, funny, and attractive. Abby becomes enamored of Luke and begins to honor his requests for nude photographs and webcam stripteases. She agrees to meet him, resulting in a kidnapping scare that produces unintended but tragic consequences for all the players involved. The plot moves along at a compulsively readable pace. However, the characters' alternating voices are often impossible to distinguish and the message about Internet safety, while pertinent, is at times too heavy-handed and repetitive. Littman does not skimp on the descriptions of the sexual exploitation, creating a realistic portrayal of the sordid nature of predators. Despite the flaws, this book is a compelling, if not disturbing, read.—Lynn Rashid, Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville, MD

School Library Journal

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