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What Sort of Family Wants Stories Like This?

Ohanian Comment:

Somehow I missed this book:

ttyl (Talk to You Later-Internet Girls)
Reading level: Young Adult
Paperback: 234 pages
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (April 1, 2005)

Since I have witnessed text messaging engulf the life of a young teen in my own family, I approach the format of this book with a certain horror.

And I admit I'm bothered that a book with such content is in a middle school library. Letting kids read whatever they want doesn't mean a school has to stock everything on its shelves. I say let them find these books somewhere else.

Extra Credit makes a good point: "Family Story" means something very different to parents than what it means to librarians.

Go to the url below and see a funny cartoonn that comments on this mother's letter.

by Carole Darby

Dear Extra Credit:

I am a soon-to-be stepmother to a lovely 12-year-old girl. She recently brought home a bright pink book with yellow smiley faces on the cover titled "TTYL" (Talk To You Later, in text/Internet-speak). The author is Lauren Myracle. I thought to myself, "How cute; how perfect for a 12-year-old." I flipped through thinking I would find stories about nail polish and trips to the mall.

Instead, I found the tale of three 10th-grade girls who use the f-bomb, drink alcohol, dance topless at a frat party, have an outside-of-school relationship with a teacher and can't wait to lose their virginity. Plus, it's written as if it appeared in an online chat conversation. Our children should be expanding their vocabulary, not minimizing it. Who in their right mind thinks it's a good idea for a child to read a book that's missing most of its vowels?

This book came from the Washington Irving Middle School library in Springfield with a "Family Story" stamp on it. I immediately contacted the school counselor, who forwarded me to the librarian. She said, "It's hard to find books that don't have some cursing and sexual themes." Isn't it the job of a librarian to get age-appropriate material for the children to read? Is this the best we can do?

I submitted a formal challenge to the principal, which is now in the hands of the assistant superintendent for the Fairfax County schools. Regarding the "Family Story" stamp, the librarian told me, "That doesn't mean sit down and read it with your family. It means real-life situations." I am not ignorant of today's youth and their increasingly getting-older-younger/babies-having-babies/want-to-be-sexy ways, but why would our school libraries encourage this lifestyle? Have our schools given up?


Extra Credit: Wow. I would have reacted as you did, if I had bothered to read the book. Lazy parents like me let our kids pick the books and rarely check. The "Family Story" stamp is particularly upsetting. That says G-rated to me.

Fairfax schools spokeswoman Mary Shaw says she cannot comment on the book while we wait for the School Board to decide on your challenge, which usually takes at least 45 days. But I hope library supervisors will rethink their interpretation of that stamp. Not all of us are as conscientious parents as you are. I wonder whether others in the region have had similarly unpleasant surprises in our school libraries.

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Audacious author Lauren Myracle accomplishes something of a literary miracle in her second young-adult novel, ttyl (Internet instant messaging shorthand for "talk to you later"), as she crafts an epistolary novel entirely out of IM transcripts between three high-school girls.

Far from being precious, the format proves perfect for accurately capturing the sweet histrionics and intimate intricacies of teenage girls. Grownups (and even teenage boys) might feel as if they've intercepted a raw feed from Girl Secret Headquarters, as the book's three protagonists--identified by their screen names "SnowAngel," "zoegirl," and "mad maddie"--tough their way through a rough-and-tumble time in high school. Conversations range from the predictable (clothes, the delicate high-school popularity ecosystem, boys, boys in French class, boys in Old Navy commercials, etc.) to the the jarringly explicit (the girls discuss female ejaculation: "some girls really do, tho. i read it in our bodies, ourselves") and the unintentionally hilarious (Maddie's IM reduction of the Christian poem "Footprints"--"oh, no, my son. no, no, no. i was carrying u, don't u c?").

But Myracle's triumph in ttyl comes in leveraging the language-stretching idiom of e-mail, text messaging, and IM. Reaching to express themselves, the girls communicate almost as much through punctuation and syntactical quirks as with words: "SnowAngel: 'cuz--drumroll, please--ROB TYLER is in my french class!!! *breathes deeply, with hand to throbbing bosom* on friday we have to do "une dialogue" together. i get to ask for a bite of his hot dog.'"

Myracle already proved her command of teenage girl-ness with Kissing Kate, but the self-imposed convention of ttyl allows a subtlety that is even more brilliant. Parents might like reading the book just to quantify how out of touch they are, but teens will love the winning, satisfyingly dramatic tale of this tumultuous trio. (Ages 13 to 17) --Paul Hughes --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal
Grade 8-10-Three high school sophomores, lifelong best friends, are now facing a variety of emotional upsets in their personal and social lives. Angela is boy crazy and emotive, but able to lend support to her friends when they need it. Zoe is the quietest and most self-effacing, considered by some to be a goody two-shoes but in fact headed full speed into a very dangerous relationship. Madigan is the hothead, less certain of how to grow up than she allows anyone, including herself, to see. The entire narrative is composed of the instant messages sent among these three, from September into November, as they each get involved with dating, sort out how to have friendships with others, cope with disasters that range from wardrobe issues to getting drunk, and offer one another advice and defiance. Each character's voice is fully realized and wonderfully realistic in spite of the very limiting scope of the IM device. Page layout mimics a computer screen and each girl IMs in a different font and in her own unique verbal style. (The title is IM jargon for "talk to you later"). Myracle not only sustains all this but also offers readers some meaty-and genuine-issues. Both revealing and innovative, this novel will inspire teens to pass it to their friends and will suggest to nascent writers that experimenting with nonnarrative communication can be a great way to tell a story.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Most Helpful Customer Reviews


26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Realistic?!, January 26, 2008
By Erica (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: ttyl (Talk to You Later) (Hardcover)
I'm a senior in high school who sometimes gets bored in the library during study hall. As a result of said boredom, my friend and I decided to select a book from the display our librarian had decided to put up full of iffy-looking young adult books and read it to see if it was as dumb as it looked.

That book was Lauren Myracle's "ttyl".

Has Ms Myracle ever HAD an IM conversation? I cannot believe that people are using the word "realistic" to describe the complete mess that is this book; they must be adult readers because NO ONE TALKS LIKE THAT, not even on IM. Trust me. I'm practically sobbing as I write this because I want you to understand...TEENAGERS ARE NOT THIS STUPID IN REAL LIFE. Good god. This book offends me and makes me ashamed to be a teenage girl...is this what people think we're like? AHHH. No. No. Nonononono. Just...No.

Please please please do not buy this book. It might encourage the author to type out more stupid things and sell them to unwitting publishers who don't know what they're unleashing on the world. *shudder*



14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars ttyl by Lauren Myracle, January 11, 2007
A Kid's Review
ttyl by Lauren Myracle is a book that is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. The main characters are three friends who are trying to survive the horrors of 10th grade and not be split apart. They have to endure the Queen Bee encounters, boy trouble, and crushes on teachers.

They start the year with no problems, but 10th grade wasn't smooth sailing. Angela get cheated by the boy that she thought was the one and goes into a depressed state. Zoe falls in love with their teacher and goes with him on religious outings and finds out that her teacher is trying to hit on her. Maddie went to frat party and got so drunk she don't know what she was doing and end up as the rumor of the school. The once best friends start to split from each other because of their own problems. They soon find themselves helping each other the best they can to pull each other closer.
I really enjoyed this book because of the format of IM. I also enjoyed the humor of Maddie, Angela, and Zoe. Their friendship also reminded me of the friendship I have with my best friend. It reminded me of the problems we've had and the problems we have over come.

I recommend this book to teenage girls who love to IM.

— Extra Credit
Washington Post
2009-06-11
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/09/AR2009060903310.html

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