This Girl is Different by JJ Johnson

Release Date: April 1, 2011
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
Pages: 288
Genre: YA Fiction
Source: Publisher
Parents: Some adult language is used.


What happens when a girl, homeschooled by her counterculture mother, decides to spend her senior year in public school? First friendship, first love—and first encounters with the complexities of authority and responsibility.


Eccentric, natural, different. The reader follows the journey of one homeschooler's chance to live out the complexities of public high school. From the excitement on the first day to the horrors that follow, the author gives you more than a taste of what could happen when a student shows her colors.


All Evie wants is the experience. Her mother wishes for a spy. Evie becomes an advocate of student rights, but falters when her plan backfires. There are two themes that contrast each other in this novel. The first is not being afraid to show your true self. Evie does not swim with the current of fish. Though she does not want to risk her chance of attending Cornell the following year, this girl takes the chance to prove her belief in unconformity.


The other theme is age-old. Bullying. Most young readers take this theme and put it in their back pocket, never to be looked upon again. Johnson makes this very hard to accomplish. This theme is beautifully laced and hard to ignore. You see the true affects from not only the main character, but throughout the student body and staff.


I absolutely love Evie and her mother! Made from the organic dirt they plant their garden in, they yield a beautiful display of how to work with the earth and not use it up! From the Dome Home they live in to their beloved cow, I loved every detail of their home.


Hands down, JJ Johnson is one of my new favorite authors.


Goodreads