Joy School: Amazon.ca: Elizabeth Berg: Books

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by Elizabeth Berg

4.3 out of 5 stars (46) CDN$ 13.83

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

Elizabeth Berg's previous novels about the feminine experience in its various stages of girlhood, adolescence, and adulthood have won her a loyal following for their emotional accuracy and powerful voices. In Joy School, Berg's newest book, young Katie's first experience of intense romantic love--with a much older man--becomes not just a crucible for the lessons of love in its various guises, but a rite of passage. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

For Katie, being 13 is hard: she's still a child, but she thinks she's a woman?maybe. It's harder still because her mother is dead and her army colonel dad has moved her to a new town. At first, Katie makes no friends. Then she meets Jimmy and falls in love. She is sure that Jimmy returns her love and that they will have a life together. (So what if he's married and has a child?) Katie's first friends are Cynthia, a lonely girl with a too-perfect mother and an old, very Italian grandmother, and Taylor, a model who introduces her to boys, stealing, and sex. The characters in this novel are so real, so perfectly drawn, that readers will become 13 again, if only for a short while. A beautiful almost-coming-of-age novel about a memorable young woman from the author of Talk Before Sleep (LJ 3/15/94); for most fiction collections.
-?Barbara Maslekoff, Ohioana Lib., Columbus, Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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First Sentence
The housekeeper is ironing and I am lying on the floor beside her, trying to secretly look up her dress. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt

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Customer Reviews

64 Reviews

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
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Average Customer Review

4.3 out of 5 stars (64 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Joy -- In Unexpected Places..., Dec 13 2008

By	Laurel-Rain Snow - Raine- "Author of 'Miles t... (Fresno, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Joy School (Paperback)

"Young as I am, I know now that everything is about to come. Jimmy will be the place for me to learn the real happiness. He will be my Joy School. My joy. Mine."

These words sum up this story, about a 13-year-old girl, Katie, transplanted to Missouri after her mother's death, and subject to the mercurial moods of a stern, inaccessible father; she finds solace in the housekeeper and in her two friends - Cynthia, who is odd and whose grandmother actually interests Katie, with her loud, Italian ways and her penchant for cooking pasta in the middle of the night - and Taylor, a shoplifter, who introduces Katie to her larcenous skills and to make-out sessions at the drive-in theater.

And then there is Jimmy - a 23-year-old married man, who comes to her rescue one day when she has fallen through the ice while skating - and who pays her the kind of attention she is sorely lacking in her everyday life.

This coming-of-age tale skillfully describes a young girl who is out-of-place in her world - a world set in the fifties or sixties - and who searches for some kind of kinship with the cast of characters placed in her path.

We connect with her, in that the author paints a picture of this isolation in such a way that we can relate. We think - Oh, yes, I know what that feels like. And as the story comes to an end, we can feel the hope - just as she experiences it.

Joy School is memorable, hilarious and heartbreaking.

By Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of:
An Accidental Life, etc.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Joy School by Elizabeth Berg, May 13 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Joy School (Paperback)

"Joy School", written by Elizabeth Berg, is a heartfelt and captivating story for the teen and adult audience. It explores the adolescent life of a thirteen-year-old girl, Katie, and her many adventures and transitions in life. Previously living in a small, hot, Texan town near a military base, Katie makes the very difficult move to Missouri where her new neighbors find pleasure in tormenting her with cruel, hand-written notes propped outside her window on her bushes. At school, Katie is a social outcast and with her older sister Diane no longer living at home, the somewhat recent death of her mother, and the fact that her stern militia father understands very little about women, she seeks comfort and feminine influence in her housekeeper--Ginger. Katie's few friends at school include an overly obsessive misfit named Cynthia and a stunningly beautiful rebel named Taylor; both holding many of Katie's secrets, loves, and lies. Elizabeth Berg explores the different sides and traits of Katie using the two very different friends. Cynthia brings out the child in Katie at times and helps preserve her innocence, where as Taylor shows her how to find thrills in dangerous and exciting things; such as shoplifting and meeting boys. But, Katie has her own unique interests, too; including the 23-year old, gorgeously handsome gas station owner who just so happens to be married. Although age is a large factor in many relationships, it is not for Katie who has fallen completely head-over-heals in love. Katie must learn to move on and that a broken heart can be mended in this hilarious and unbelievably realistic tale of heartbreak and growing up.

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3.0 out of 5 stars High Hopes For This One, May 10 2004

By	Leigh A. Taft (Mobile, AL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Joy School (Paperback)

I've been wanting to read this for over a year now. Not sure what I was expecting, but it just wasn't "there". I read others by Berg & sadly, this is last on the list. I did get a few laughs out of it though. Berg does a great job in making us feel 13 again. Katie was an obviously likeable character with all her female pre-teen drama & you just couldn't help but smile.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as I hoped
I absolutely love Elizabeth Berg and started to fall in love when I first read her novel "Open House". I was soooo excited to finally read "joy school". Read more

Published on Jan 8 2004 by dicey23

4.0 out of 5 stars A Complete Joy!
What a delight reliving age 13 again!

I was like yea, I remember being like that. I remember feeling those unbelievably deep emotions. Read more

Published on Jul 26 2003 by siammuse

4.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing, entertaining, thoughtful
I enjoyed this book. I hesitated buying it for quite a while and once i began reading, I couldn't imagine why. Read more

Published on Jun 20 2003 by Alicia Cathers

4.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely wonderful!
The second in the trilogy about young Katie, daughter of a distant, sometimes kind of abusive, Army father, this book begins where "Durable Goods" left off -- Katie and... Read more