Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

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Original Title: Goodbye Stranger

ISBN: 0385743173
ISBN13: 9780385743174
Autor: Rebecca Stead
Rating: 4.1 of 5 stars (3937) counts
Original Format: Hardcover, 289 pages
Download Format: PDF, FB2, MOBI, MP3.
Published: August 4th 2015 / by Wendy Lamb Books
Language: English
Genre(s):
Young Adult- 276 users
Childrens >Middle Grade- 275 users
Realistic Fiction- 217 users
Fiction- 113 users

Description:
Bridge is an accident survivor who's wondering why she's still alive. Emily has new curves and an
almost-boyfriend who wants a certain kind of picture. Tabitha sees through everybody's
gamesor so she tells the world. The three girls are best friends with one rule: No fighting. Can it
get them through seventh grade?
This year everything is different for Sherm Russo as he gets to know Bridge Barsamian. What
does it mean to fall for a girlas a friend?
On Valentine's Day, an unnamed high school girl struggles with a betrayal. How long can she hide
in plain sight?

About Author:

I love books but don't feel like stars capture what I want to say about them. Many of the books on
my list are, in my opinion, amazing. Some I didn't like. But I give them all five stars, because stars
make people - including me -- happy. Confused? Me too.
If you want to talk about any book I've read, I'm here.

Other Editions:

- Goodbye Stranger (Kindle Edition)

- Goodbye Stranger (Hardcover)

- Goodbye Stranger (Audio CD)

- Goodbye Stranger (Paperback)

- Goodbye Stranger (Hardcover)

Books By Author:

- When You Reach Me

- Liar & Spy

- First Light

- When You Reach Me/First Light

- Guys Read: Plan B: A Short Story from Guys Read: Other Worlds

Books In The Series:

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Rewiews:

Apr 02, 2015

Betsy
Rated it: it was amazing
Shelves: realistic-fiction, middle-school-books, new-york-city, bully-books
After much consideration, I think Im going to begin this review with what has to be the hoity toity-
est opening I have ever come up with. Gird thy loins, mes amies. In her 2006 book Betraying
Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity (dont say you werent warned),
philosopher Rebecca Goldstein wrote the following passage about the concept of personal
identity: What is it that makes a person the very person that she is, herself alone and not another,
an integrity of identity that persist
After much consideration, I think Im going to begin this review with what has to be the hoity toity-
est opening I have ever come up with. Gird thy loins, mes amies. In her 2006 book Betraying
Spinoza: The Renegade Jew Who Gave Us Modernity (dont say you werent warned),
philosopher Rebecca Goldstein wrote the following passage about the concept of personal
identity: What is it that makes a person the very person that she is, herself alone and not another,
an integrity of identity that persists over time, undergoing changes and yet still continuing to be
until she does not continue any longer, at least not unproblematically? In other words, why is the
you that you were at five the same person as the you at thirteen or fourteen? Now I dont know
that a lot of 10-14 year olds spend their days contemplating the philosophical meanings behind
their sense of self from one stage of life to another. But if they hadnt before, theyre about to now.
Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead has taken what on the surface might look like a fluffy middle
school tale of selfies and first loves and turned it into a much more layered discussion of bodies,
feminism, the male (and female) gaze, female friendships, relationships, and betrayals. And fake
moon landings. And fuzzy cat ear headbands. Hard to pin this one down, honestly.
By all logic, Bridge should have died when she was eight years old. She skated into the street and
got hit by a car, after all. Yet Bridge lived and with seemingly no serious repercussions. Recently
shes been taking to wearing little black cat ears on her head, but her best friends Emily and Tab
dont mind. Its their seventh grade year and there are bigger things on their minds. Emilys been
flirting with a cute older soccer player, Tabs trying to save the world in her way, and now Bridge
has become friends with Sherm, a guy shed never even talked to until this year. When a wayward
selfie throws the friends into a tizzy, its all the three can do to keep their promise to one another
never to fight. Meanwhile, several months in the future, an unnamed teenager is skipping school.
Something terrible has happened and she wants to avoid the blowback. But while thinking about
her ex-best friend and the way things have changed, she may be unable to hide from herself as
well as she hides from others.
Lets get back to that idea that with every new age in your life, youre an entirely different person
than you were before. That philosopher I was quoting, Ms. Goldstein, asks, Is death one of those
adventures from which I cant emerge as myself? Actual death, shes saying, is where you
change into something other than your own self for good. But arent the changes throughout your
life little deaths as well? Is that five-year-old you in that photograph really you? Do you share
something essential? Stead isnt delving deep into these questions but simply raising points to
make kids think. So when her teenage character ponders that her best friend has undergone a
change from which her old self will never return the book reads, But another part of you, the part
that stayed quiet, began to understand that maybe Vinny, your Vinny, was gone. Poof! Sherm
wonders something similar about his grandfather and the mans odd actions. He writes in a letter
that his grandfather now feels like a stranger and then says, Is the new you the stranger? Or is
the stranger the person you leave behind?
To write one part of the book, the teenager, in the second person was a daring choice. Its so
unusual, in fact, that you cannot look at it without wondering what the reasoning was behind its
direction. When Ms. Stead was deciding how to put Goodbye Stranger together, there had to
come a point where she made the conscious decision that the teenagers voice could only work in
the second person. Why? Maybe to make the reader identify with her more directly. Maybe to
make her tale, which is significantly less fraught than some of the other stories in this book, more
immediate and in your face. Insofar as it goes, it works. The purpose of the narrative is perhaps to
prove to kids that age does not necessarily begat wisdom. For them, the revelation of the identity
of the runaway, who was previously seen as so wise and older, should prove a bit of a shocker. It
also drives home the theme of changing personalities and who the self really is from one age to
another really well.
Right now, I can predict the future. Dont believe me? Its true. I see hundreds of childrens books
clubs assigned this book. I see hundreds of teachers having kids read it over the summer. And
time after time I see kids handed sheets of paper (or maybe virtual paper Im flexible) with a
bunch of questions about the book and their interpretation of the events. And right there, clear as
crystal, is the following question: What is the significance of Bridges cat ears? Dont answer that,
kids. Dont do it. Because if the adult who handed you this book is asking you that question, then
they themselves didnt really read the book. You could ask a hundred questions about Goodbye
Stranger but if the cat ears are your focus then I think you took the wrong message away from
this story.
And theres such beautiful prose to be enjoyed as well. Sentences like You can see the sun
touching the tops of the buildings across the street, making its way through the neighborhood like
someone whose attention you are careful not to attract. Or, You can have it all, but you cant
have it all at once. And maybe my favorite one, You know what my dad told me once? He said
the human heart doesnt really pump the way everyone thinks . . . He said that the heart wrings
itself out. It twists in two different directions, like youd do to squeeze the water out of a wet towel.
Trust me if I could spend the rest of this review just quoting from this book, Id do it. I suspect
that would only amuse me in the end, though.
Bane of the cataloging librarians job, this book is a middle school title for middle schoolers. Not
young kids. Not jaded teens. Middle. School. Kids. As such, were it not for the authors fantastic
writing and already existing fan base, it would languish away in that no mans land between child
and teen fiction. Fortunately Stead has a longstanding, strong, and dedicated group of young
followers who are willing to dip a toe into the potentially murky world of middle school. There they
will find exactly what we all found when we were that age. There will be kids who seem to be
enjoying an extended childhood, while others have found themselves thrust into mature bodies
they have no experience operating. With this book the selfie has officially entered the childrens
literature lexicon and woe betide those who seek to turn back the clock. Naturally, this will lead
some adults to believe that the book is better suited in the YA and teen sections of their libraries
and bookstores. I condemn no ones choice on where best to place this book, particularly since
some communities are a bit more conservative in their tastes and attitudes than others. That said,
I am of the firm opinion that this is a book for kids. We may like to believe that the situations that
occur here (and they are very PG situations, for what its worth) dont occur in the real world, but
wed be fooling ourselves. If the heroine of the book had been Bridges friend Emily and not Bridge
herself, then a stronger case could be made for the books YA inclinations. Moreover the tone of
the book, while certainly filled with intelligent kids, is truly intended for a child audience. Adults will
enjoy it. Teens might even enjoy it. But its kids that will benefit the most from it in the end.
The trickiest part of the book, and the part that may raise the most eyebrows, is Steads handling
of the notion of feminism and the perception of girls and women. Emily and Bridges friend Tab
takes a class from a woman who seems to have stepped out of a 1974 womens studies college
course. Her name is Ms. Berman but she says the kids can call her Berperson. Tab, for her part,
devours everything the Berperson (as they prefer to call her) says and then takes what shes
learned and applies it in a bad way. Shes a middle schooler. There are college girls who do very
much the same thing. So I watched very closely to see how Tabs feminist interpretation of events
went down. First off, the Berperson does not approve of what Tab does later in the book. Then I
wanted to see if Tabs continual feminist statements made any good points. Sometimes they really
really do. When it comes to the selfie, Tabs the smartest of her three friends. Other times shes
incredibly annoying. So whats a kid going to take away from this book re: feminism? For the most
part, its complicated but the end result is that Tab is left, for all her smarts early on, a fool. Thats
a strong message and one that Im worried will cast a long shadow over the concept of feminism
itself, reinforcing stereotypes that its humorless and self-righteous. On the flip side, there are
some very intelligent things being said about how girls are perceived in society. When a girl is slut
shamed (the exact phrase isnt used but thats what it is) for her picture, she says later, But the
bad part wasnt that everyone was looking at the picture. I mean, it was weird and not great. But
the bad part was that it felt like they were making fun of my feeling good about the picture. Of me
liking myself. Lots to unpack there.
If Stead has a known style then perhaps its in writing mysteries that arent mysteries. Every
question raised by the text along with every loose end is tied up by the storys close. Characters
are smart and their interactions with one another carry the thrill of authenticity. Stead is sort of a
twenty-first century E.L. Konigsburg. Her kids are intelligent but (unlike Konigsberg, I would argue)
they still feel like kids. And there are connections between the characters and events that you
didnt even think to hope for until, at last, they are revealed to you. I heard one adult who had read
this book say that it was layered. I suppose thats a pretty good way of describing it. It has this
surface simplicity to it but even the slightest scratch to that surface yields gold. Ive focused on just
a couple of the aspects of the title that I personally find interesting, but there are so many other
directions that a person could go with it. If Stead has a known style, maybe it isnt mysteries or
kids smart beyond their years or multiple connections. Maybe her style is just writing great books.
The evidence in this case speaks for itself.
For ages 10 and up.
105 likes
22 comments

Shereen
Wonderful review. So well done and helped me build on my initial thoughts on the book and better
understand things

Sep 02, 2016 10:42PM

Betsy Wolf
Fantastic review!

Sep 19, 2016 09:01PM