Product Description

Fourteen-year-old Jennie's life is turning upside down. Her father has walked out, and her anguished mother seeks solace in pills. Her best friend practically abandons her to be with a boyfriend. It seems like Jennie's real best friend is her diary. Then she meets Mr. Johnstone, the substitute math teacher. Jennie has never met such a charismatic teacher. She feels honored when Mr. J. seems to single her out for special attention, and begins to fantasize about him as her boyfriend. When Mr. J. first reveals his feelings for her, she is thrilled by the relationship that grows outside the classroom walls. Then, slowly, Jennie's diary becomes a record of her loneliness, pain, and confusion. Will it also offer her a way to escape from this treacherous love?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #223636 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-30
• Released on: 2000-05-31
• Format: Deluxe Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 176 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780380808625
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Beatrice Sparks is a family and adolescent therapist who edited the diary that formed the basis for Go Ask Alice, and has since edited many diaries on topics such as gangs, AIDS, and teen pregnancy in the 1988 Annie's Baby. She lives in Provo, UT.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

September 9th–Monday–1:15 a.m.

I just woke up with a cold spooky feeling running through me. At first I couldn’t figure out what it was and pulled myself deeper under my covers and put my pillow over my head, but the shivers just got worse . . . then I realized Mom and Dad were fighting again! I HATE IT . . . HATE IT . . . HATE IT . . . when they do that!

I can’t understand a single bit of what they are saying, but the feelings come through like giant rocks and electric shocks and fire darts. I want it to stop!!! Stop!!! Stop!!! I hate it! And I hate them for doing it! I don’t really hate them. Actually, I want, with all my might, to run into their room and snuggle up in their bed with them. Me in the middle being kissed and hugged and spoiled like when I was little.

Whatever happened to our loving, happy little family that used to play hide-and-seek in the house and have picnics on the floor in front of the fireplace on rainy days? And do all the fun nice things that we always used to do? Like talk and talk and talk and talk.

Monday–7:00 a.m.

My stupid old alarm clock just woke me up with its stupid old song, "Oh, What a Beautiful Morning." It’s hardly that! My pillow is all wet and soggy with tears and I’m as tired as if I had just climbed Mount Everest. I guess I cried myself to sleep again last night. I hate that!

Monday–7:36 a.m.

I just got out of the shower and finished drying my hair and I AM SO EMBARRASSED! How could I have felt all those horrible hating things about Mom and Dad last night?

As the warm bubbly water splashed and gurgled over my body it washed all the badness away and made me think more like a sane person instead of like a dumb little kid. They have a right to disagree about things just like I do! They aren’t clones. They don’t have to just say "yes sir" or "yes ma’am" to each other to death about every little thing. Bridget and I sometimes have almost screaming matches over who played the best at some of our hockey games and other stuff that’s not all that important, so why couldn’t Mom and Dad have just been arguing about a movie they’d seen or Mom’s alcoholic sister Meg, who comes by occasionally and drives us all crazy, or . . . there are a million things . . . oh, I’m such a worrywart, look-for-trouble, negative, dumbhead sometimes.

Customer Reviews

Not how a teenager really thinks or feels
I read this book becuase it looked good and I saw alot of good reviews on amazon, but it was a huge dissapointment. Its not realistic at all. She is constantly saing she is a negative thinker and going off to the park and crying with her friends or mother and just making all of these connections that a real teenager never would. Theres too many CAPITALS and exclimation marks!!! with everything she said its almost mocking, that teenagers are total idiots. Its distracting from the story, that in reality isnt that good. Its hard to explain, but i was not suprised this was written by a psychiatrist. this person obviously was just trying to tell teenagers not to have relationships with teachers, and not writing a good book. Its a dissapointment. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY. This person needs to stop writing books, they are horrible.

Victimization and preaching
There are two things Beatrice Sparks is good at (sorry to disappoint you, kids, there's no "anonymous teenager" handing their diaries over to her for editing) - creating victims and preaching. Even while dealing with issue of teenage pregnancy, she chose to have the character be raped so that she was absolved from responsibility. This book is no exception. As for the preaching - the character constantly berates herself for not being positive enough, and reminding herself what she's grateful for, usually accompanied by capital letters and excessive exclamation marks. The narrator is too-good-to-be-true and her style too juvenile for her age, but if you enjoyed other works by Dr Sparks, pick it up - it's almost identical to everything else she's written.

Eh....
This book was ok... After reading a few pages I had to assume that this was not a realy diary. It is tto preachy (like how she is always scolding herself for being sad or mad at someone, just not something a real teenage girl would do). Also after a while I started to hope either something interesting and realistic would happen or the book would just be over. The ending is too perfect and abrupt for an "actual" girl's account of her affair with her teacher. I have read quite a few diary books and this one is not one of the better and more believable ones. It made me kind of depressed for this girl who is being used and I am not sure whether or not it was a waste of time to read it. Either way, teenage girls might want to read it so they can see the signs of a teacher who wants more that just good grades from you.