This post is an original series created by librarians/media specialists across Central Minnesota featuring books. If you have a book you would like to showcase, send your review to our offices.

Review by Maria Burnham, SRRHS Library Media Specialist

Feature Book: Girl Meets Boy: Because There Are Two Sides to Every Story edited by Kelly Milner Halls

I have to believe that everyone, at some point in their lives, has had a discussion with someone about the difference in perspective between men and women. Oftentimes my husband and I talk about how we “interrupt” a conversation we’ve had or events in our lives so differently from each other.  Frankly, we just see things differently because we are different genders.  And that idea is exactly the premise of Girl Meets Boy: Because There Are Two Sides to Every Story.

The book is actually a compilation of short stories about male/female relationships among teens.  Each story is told twice, once from the male perspective and once from the female lens, and each chapter of the book is written by a different YA author. The first story in the book is written by Chris Crutcher and it’s a story of a young (and quite handsome) young man named John who has a bad habit of lying to girlfriends to get what he wants.  However, he vows to change his ways, so his next female relationship takes him down a new road of friendship and love.  Once you learn of this relationship through John’s eyes, the next chapter retells the story through the lens of his newest love interest, Wanda Wickham, written by the book’s editor, Kelly Milner Halls.  And once you learn how Wanda sees the world, your view on the whole situation completely changes.

I love that each chapter of this book is a little different because the voice always changes and you never know what you’re going to read.  The book is fairly short and would be a good fit for a struggling reader because the stories cut right to the chase.  Warning: some of the content about the relationships relate to sexual intimacy, so the book is probably most appropriate at a high school level.