Petits Mensonges Nécessaires

by Tish Cohen

Sara and her father are moving to Boston from small-town Lundon, Massachusetts. She is going to attend the very prestigious Anton High School - crowned "North America's Most Elite and Most Bizarre" by Time magazine, and harder to get into than Harvard. As the new girl, Sara doesn't know anyone; better yet, no one knows her. That means she can escape her family's checkered past, and her father can be a surgeon instead of "Crazy Charlie," the school janitor.What's the harm in a few little black lies? Especially if they transform Sara into Anton's latest "It" girl... But then one of the popular girls at school starts looking into Sara's past, and her father's obsessive-compulsive disorder takes a turn for the worse. Soon, the whole charade just might come crashing down...

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Chick Lit, Teen

340 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2009

About the author

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
Anais Nin quote from Oprah's website inspired Tish Cohen to write her first adult novel.

Tish Cohen is the author of TOWN HOUSE, a 2008 finalist for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize – Best First Book Award (Canada and Caribbean region), and in development as a feature film with Fox 2000. Ridley Scott’s Scott Free is producing and John Carney, the award-winning, critically acclaimed director of ONCE is directing. TOWN HOUSE was released to massive media interest in Canada and has been published in Italy and will soon be released in Germany.

Cohen has also written the middle-grade novels THE INVISIBLE RULES OF ZOE LAMA, and its sequel THE ONE AND ONLY ZOE LAMA

Cohen has contributed articles to some of Canada’s largest newspapers, including The Globe and Mail and The National Post. Having grown up in Los Angeles, Orange County and Montreal, Cohen now calls Toronto home. INSIDE OUT GIRL is Cohen’s second novel for adults.

Reviews

[Cristina · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF.

This book is painfully slow and boring. I got about halfway through but I genuinely cannot sacrifice any more brain cells reading this. I also hate how awful Sara is with her father. I'm sure watching a parent struggle with OCD is hard but I can't forgive her for pretending she doesn't know him just because she wants to be popular at school. Yes I'm an adult and see things differently than a teenager but I can guarantee high school me would never have pretended my father was a stranger so the "cool kids" would have liked me. That's just sad and I have no desire to continue reading this book.

[Samantha R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Little Black Lies
Book Review
By: Samantha Rundle


The book “Little Black Lies,” is a teen novel used to express the difficulties of a teenager moving from one city to another. In this book the protagonist, Sara Black, moves schools because her parents went through an awful divorce. Her mother now lives in Paris, and she lives with her father. Her father, Charlie, gets a new job as a janitor at an elite school called “Anton High.” This school is for the all “famous kids.” All of their parents are famous, or have very high paying jobs. All the students go to all the very big parties, and drink very expensive champagne, which Sara isn’t exactly used too.

Since Sara is the new girl in school, and her parents are exactly “famous” (even though the students at Anton call her father “Crazy Charlie”) she has to try to find a way to “fit in” with the cool crowd. Sara starts doing things that she wouldn’t have done at her old school, things that she regrets. For example, when the “cool kids” ask her where she came from, she said Lundon (meaning Lundon, Massachusetts) but the students interpret it as London, England. She goes along with this lie, because people are starting to find her interesting, and the girls want to hang out with her. She then lies about her father being a neurosurgeon, instead of being the janitor at school. She doesn’t tell any of the kids that “Crazy Charlie” is her dad because he has OCD, and everyone thinks he is very weird.

I enjoyed this book a lot because I know lots of teenagers can relate to what Sara has gone through. Fitting in with new friends at a new school can be very intimidating, and especially if the new school you go to is filled with all the kids that are famous. I know that I wouldn’t want to go to a school where I would be sitting beside a guy’s daughter that I looked at in my “People” magazine last night.

Over all, I think this book is a great book for teens that just want a cleaner book than “Gossip Girl.” It is a fantastic book to be able to sit and read, and just relax. It is an easy read and I would recommend it to teenage girls, because it is a good example of how to “fit in” at school, and to just be yourself, because if you aren’t yourself, you will never know who you really are.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

it got me mad in some parts because of meanies but whatevers, it was awesome. it was a super typical high school plot but she lies about everything so yeah.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

In an effort to fit in at her new school, to erase her parent's divorce (and the shame she felt when her mother ran off with the husband of the school's most popular teacher), and to hide her father's OCD, Sara tells some little lies. Black lies, obviously, because they're not the ones we call white lies.

This is one of those wanting-to-be-part-of-the-popular crowd stories, with consequences. Of course the girl she wants to be friends with most, Carling, is also the prettiest and meanest. Of course one of the others (Izzie) will feel threatened and discover Sara's lies. And of course Sara will do something stupid to cover for her lies.

What I liked is that the consequence of all this is real: there's no last minute saving. Sara scuttles her future for stupid reasons, and she's stuck with that. On the other hand, she does - in the end - get The Guy, so perhaps things are all bad. While I wish we could have seen more about her school, or some of the more interesting characters, I'm glad that this really takes the form of a morality tale. Whether younger readers will see that is, of course, a question.

(Free ARC provided by publisher)

[Daritza Luna · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING! I loved this book, this is my type of book. High School drama and life problems.

I lliked how the popular kids were from a "nerd" school, it was quite different.

I really hated Sara's mom, she annoyed me so much!

[Zinta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tish Cohen’s books may be labeled young adult, but I find her work to be easily sophisticated enough for adult reading—certainly for those of us who are parents and may want to delve deeper into the minds of our youth. Cohen’s understanding of those young minds is uncanny. I’ve been a fan since my introduction to Cohen about a year ago, reading Inside Out Girl, and in fact, was inspired to learn more and so interviewed her as feature author for The Smoking Poet at that time. Reading Little Black Lies, impossible to do slowly, I remember why.

Like that previous novel, this one, too, examines a broken and painfully dysfunctional family from the perspective of a teenager. Little Black Lies is the story of Sara Black in her freshman year at Anton High School, a school for the smart and the privileged. Sara is indeed very smart in terms of school work, but she is anything but privileged. She is able to attend the school mostly because her father is employed as janitor there, although her grades qualify her, too. As is so often true, however, book learning doesn’t equal emotional intelligence or social skills, and Sara maneuvers her way through Anton, slangishly known as “Ant,” by an ever deepening layer of lies. It’s all about acceptance and fitting in. Something any honest teen will tell you: high school is a test of emotional and social intelligence far more than the measure of a sharp mind.

These are not white lies. I love Cohen’s word play here, in title and in calling the school Ant, bringing up an image of insects slavishly following other insects, mindless and obedient to even the most irrational social rules. Sara’s father, to whom on one hand she seems utterly devoted, while on the other hand whom she betrays completely, suffers from OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder. Carrying wounds deep inside him that he has yet to resolve, Sara’s father Charlie tries helplessly to clean away all that is dirt in his life: the betrayal of his wife (Sara’s mother), who had an affair with a high school science teacher and left him and Sara, and other wounds going back to his own youth. The more stressed he becomes, the more he cleans and orders his life, attempting to bring order to chaos. Sara has learned to pick up on the symptoms, and her own attempts at soothing her father back into rational behavior become something of her own dysfunction, turning into almost pathological lying.

Of course, once you tell one lie, the lies multiply like rabbits, and the liar must work ever harder and harder to sustain the masking of truth. Every lie becomes uglier than the one before. Cohen resists any attempt to portray her characters as entirely black or white, but paints them in many shades of gray. Sara has many good attributes, exhibits many moments of goodness, and Cohen shows us the source of Sara’s own wounds. Like every child, she longs for a stable home, loving parents, trustworthy and logical. Like so many children, she does not get that wish. Her mother chose her affair over her daughter, and her father, although truly a good man, has too loose a hold on his own sanity to fully be present for his young daughter. And so we come to understand and sympathize. To a point. As Sara’s lies become ever blacker, there are also moments we lose all sympathy.

No one gets through life without telling some lies, but Sara repeatedly betrays her most faithful and true friend, Mandy, even when her friend is on the brink with her own troubles. Sara denies her father repeatedly, like a young Judas, pretending he is not her father when he smiles at her in school, standing by silently when the “in group” makes fun of him. Her motives are shallow, yet the same for too many teens. She craves acceptance from her peers and popularity with the boys. For this, no lie seems to be too big or too black. It seems she will do anything, anything at all, to keep that in crowd believing that she is a sophisticated and rich young woman whose roots are in London, England, rather than Lundon, Massachusetts. She concocts an elaborate history of fake parents with fake professions, even while her father passes her in the school halls, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning away the dirt that keeps coming back.

The book portrays an accurate portrait of the pressures at that age—pressure to be hyper-sexualized as a female and put out for popularity, not only by the opposite gender but almost especially from one’s own; pressure to be rich with all the superficial attributes and accessories; pressure to be with the “right” friends, the pretty girls who wear high fashion labels and are more about the next party than any deeper value. Sara works hard to belong with her female peers, is much less concerned with the opposite sex in terms of acceptance, until Leo catches her eye. For this crush, she falls even deeper into lies, and becomes willing to risk her life rather than be found out.

A climactic scene unfolds when Charlie, her father, finally breaks down and spins out of control with his OCD. A human being can take only so much stress before the cracks finally begin to show. Sooner or later, one way or another, all lies surface. Sara watches in horror as her father loses it in school, this place that has become her theatre stage, and can’t stop scrubbing invisible water stains from a school sink.

“That’s not it!” I want to shout. He’s not scrubbing to rid the sink of stains. He’s got it in his head that this spot is wicked with danger. It doesn’t matter that his opponent doesn’t exist, it just matters that he feels he has won. That’s the enigma of OCD.

At the doorway, more teachers have gathered and are herding the students down the hall. I slip past them into the laboratory…. The thought of paramedics racing in here and shooting Dad up with tranquilizers like some gorilla that’s escaped from the zoo, only to strap him to a stretcher and whisk him off… is more than I can take… The kids are gone, along with many of the teachers. I pluck the bottle of bleach solution, Charlie’s liquid solace, his pacifier, from the cleaning bucket… Knowing full well it’s like giving the alcoholic a beer, I hand the bleach to my father. “Try this.”

His wild eyes focus on me but he says nothing. Just removes the cap, douses his cloth in fluid, and wipes the sink with it. He stands back and watches the sink go from shiny and silver with wetness, back to mottled and dusty-looking silver. The sound of the microbes screaming, dying, is nearly audible, and right away I see his jaw slacken and relax.

Predictably, Sara gets found out. After her ever more extreme and desperate manipulations, the mask falls and reveals the vulnerable and hurting and deeply insecure girl inside. By the time that it does, some readers may have lost all ability to forgive. Wounded as she herself is, she has left a trail of victims: a good father denied, a loyal friend abandoned in her moment of greatest need, while stooping ever lower to be liked by popular girls who show no redemptive values whatsoever (only their own deeply hidden insecurities).

By end of book, it occurs to me that girls especially are today going to greater and greater lengths to please not boys, but other girls, trying to find love and acceptance that broken families have denied them. Teen females are dressing and behaving in a manner that makes it impossible not to objectify them—and Cohen does a great job of showing us what most parents are probably trying hard not to realize about their own children: our children are growing up in a promiscuous and dangerous world that cannot end well. They are seeking “love” in all the wrong places and from all the wrong people. All of which is a silent scream for help, yet another societal dysfunction, that adults must heed if we are to guide our youth into a healthy adulthood.

Important issues, and Cohen does not shy away from any of them. Like it or not, these are the realities of our contemporary world. Being young has never been more complicated, more obstacle-ridden, more testing, than it is today. And many teens are navigating this complicated and confused world on their own, their parents often too obsessed with careers or their own affairs to notice. With this, Cohen does a great service with her young adult novels. She writes books that show young adults they are not alone in their struggles. She reveals to adults the world they may not have realized exists. These are the black lies of a society that has too often lost track of values and lost sight of priorities. We can only be grateful for authors such as Cohen to remind us: the mask will eventually come off and we will have to face the painful consequences.

Tish Cohen is the author of several books for adults and young readers. Her adult novel Town House was a 2008 finalist for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best First Book Award (Canada and Caribbean region) and is in development as a feature film. Cohen’s middle-grade novels, The Invisible Rule of the Zöe Lama and The One and Only Zöe Lamaand The National Post. Having grown up in Los Angeles and Orange County in California, and Montreal, Cohen now calls Toronto home.

~Zinta Aistars for The Smoking Poet, Winter 2009-10 Issue

[Aadhya Modi · Rating 4 out of 5]

First and foremost, Sara Black is extremely intelligent and passionate about math. Despite her intelligence, she is still a relatable protagonist with a social life that we can connect with. It shows that even the smartest people have a lot to learn about life. As I read about Sara digging deeper into a grave of lies, we find a point where she can't get out of her lies anymore. One thing I love is that she gets punished for the things she does when she comes through with them. That may be my favourite part of the book. This is an example of not judging a book by its cover or first quarter, especially when it comes to who Sarah is as a person. I don't want to spoil anything, so stay tuned. If you love realistic fiction in the style of Kelly Yang, you will not be able to put this book down. I stayed up until 2 am reading it.
In conclusion, Sarah Black is an intelligent, relatable girl who made many irreversible mistakes in Anton High and now she paid for it, and now she lives with serenity and owns up to herself which is why she is still the heroine of the story, although everyone says otherwise. I write reviews here: https://sites.google.com/view/magical...

[McKenzie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I personally did not like this book as I felt that it was jumping around from character to character. I didn't feel like I was able to be in the moment as it would jump from this character saying this and then another saying that. I also felt that I was unable to know who the characters were. I also didn't really like the ending... Not really a book for me..... have fun reading whatever you read! Wouldn't recommend this one though :)

[Jill Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, all the "popular" girls and and all the "new" girls theme is right where it has to be! -.- Did not like anyone's character. Did not like how the main girl was always ashamed and pretended to be someone she's not. It was just not one of those touching books for me.

[Manda · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was about a girl who lies at a new school to get popular and it gets back to her. Karma. Pretty good, enjoyable book.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of my favorites of Tish Cohen's books but still enjoyable

[Katherine O · Rating 5 out of 5]

Katherine Ortiz
April 27th 2011 Bye Sara Black, Welcome London.
ELA 702

Ever had to hide who you are to fit into a new environment? Have you ever been so embarrassed about a particular part of your life and past that you'd do anything to hide it beneath the ashes? And have you ever told such a large lie that it wasn't a little white lie, but more ugly, a little black lie? If you have then you will love the book "Little black lies" by Tish Cohen.

Sara is the new girl at Ant High, and things couldn't be any more complicated. But a large factor that added to all of her complications maybe was her father becoming the new janitor with OCD at Anton High. Sara had to deal with so much stress during this story, that it would even make the reader tired. She had to keep up with a school that demanded grades as perfect as Cinderella's glass shoe. The stress of making sure that not only everyone found out that Charlie, the new janitor was related to her but even more her father, but the fact that she didn't want her father finding out she was pretending to not know him, knowing it would basically kill him inside, and seeing her father's face when he discovered the ugly truth about his daughter was too much to handle. Guilt ate Sara through the mess, bubbling up inside her. Sara wasn’t majorly just embarrassed about her father working at her high school, but at what she was trying to hide, mixed in with secrets, the tear bringing past, and her fears that lie in store. Now, no one said keeping secrets would be easy, especially due the facts that secrets…tend to get out… specially when someone sniffs them out soon enough.

Sara has undergone so many changes the past year, so many changes that have forced Sara into creating a new character for herself at this all background centered high school, a character that is such out of the range of "little white lies" into little black lies. Making the entire Ant High population believe that your father is a rich neurosurgeon and that she has moved from London England when her dad is really the new janitor, and she's from the small town of Lundon Massachusetts. But having the whole school thinking you're just one of the rest just like Sarawanted, kept her at a high alert place, doing everything in her power to make sure no one finds out of the ugly truth that will send herpopularity crashing into the ground. Sara wanted what everyone else in Anton High wanted, she did not want to be popular, but to fit in. She didn't want to be the outcast of the school. A school formulated upon high standard kids with enough brains to run the country, and a lifestyleto suit a royal family. Sara knew that in a crowd of Ant students, she was the undercover outcast. She didn't want anyone finding out that herfather was the new janitor everyone joked about. She also didn't want anyone finding out about her past ,that was made up of enough secrets,and tears to bring anyone down.

So Sara did the unthinkable to make sure that no one ever found out about the fact that her father was the weird new janitor or thatshe lived on the top of an old hardware store. Sara created a new character for herself, lying to everything and everyone that stepped in her path. Soon Sara Black had transformed herself into the unthinkable, she had transformed herself into one of the populars. But was being friendswith Carling Burnack worth the trouble when she added so much more stress into the already high balanced life? Sara sure thought so, puttingup with everything Carling set in her path, and maybe...just maybe, blackmailing was part of her mischievous plans as well. Sara becoming thenew Carling Burnack sidekick creates her many enemies, from all sides. Sara is forced to give up everything to keep her secret and new identityhidden beneath the ashes, even giving up your first love

I found the book "Little Black Lies" by Tish Cohen to be such an emotional and exciting book to read. As I read and moved on throughthe book I became more and more excited aboutwhat was going to occurr next. This book has deeper meaning hidden beneath the words though. This book shows that no matter how changing who you are to fit in isn't worth it, specially when you are hiding such critical parts that make up whom you really are. Sara everything that was her, and everything that made up her life to fit into the crowd. But more importantly forher friendship with the most popular girl in the school, Carling to stay intact. But hiding who you are never turns out well, and especiallyfor thislittle liar. No matter how hard Sara tries, in the end everything collapses in the most unpredictable ways, in ways unimaginable. I recommendthis book to anyone who is searching for a story about trying to fit into a completely different environment by hiding your entire life story, andwho you are. I would also recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a high climax story filled with lies, secrets, and the heart shreddingtruth. Now, lies are meant to be unveiled at some point, specially with Sara in the lead.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crimes and Deceit: Columbine and Little Black Lies


Transitioning between reading books can be difficult, especially when moving from something intensely dark and thick with facts to a far lighter read, such as a young adult (YA) book with a partially pink cover. Or, you may be surprised by their connective tissue.

This week I transitioned from Columbine by Dave Cullen, a deeply disturbing analysis of teenage killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, to Little Black Lies by Tish Cohen, an engrossing and ultimately heartening YA novel about Sara Black, a janitor’s daughter at a high-powered high school who tells damning lies to keep from being killed socially.

In Columbine, Dave Cullen methodically (and with breath-holding tension) scrutinizes the signposts that might have foretold the ongoing horror enacted at Columbine High School. Parents of Harris’ friend-turned-enemy repeatedly reported Harris, the boy they called “a criminal in bloom” to police. Thirteen months before the Columbine violence, police drafted a never-finished search warrant that may have uncovered weapons at Harris’ home. Before the crime, both boys were involved with police and counselors. Videos of their hatred and explosion-rehearsals were posted online. Klebold wrote vicious stories of violence for school assignments. Harris openly trolled his friends for weapons.

According to Cullen’s investigative account of the horror committed at Columbine High, the killings and injuries were not the results of bullied children, but of bullies. Klebold was, by Cullen’s sources, a clinically depressed suicidal teenager who followed Harris, a psychopath, described thusly in Columbine:

Psychopaths are distinguished by two characteristics. The first is a ruthless disregard for others: they will defraud, maim, or kill for the most trivial personal gain. The second is an astonishing gift for disguising the first. It’s the deception that makes them so dangerous. You never see him coming . . . don’t look for the oddball creeping you out. Psychopaths don’t act like Hannibal Lector or Norman Bates. They come off like Hugh Grant, in his most charming role.

In YA novel Little Black Lies, Tish Cohen gives us antagonist Carling, a dangerously charismatic Queen Bee student, who protagonist Sara Black tries to befriend in a misguided attempt at shaking off her own reality. Author Tish Cohen gives motive without excuse to Carling’s warped use of her perceived and real power. She fashions a page-turning morality tale for teenagers, where evil is (mostly) punished and (most) good deeds are eventually rewarded.

Cohen presents her well-crafted story of Sara’s morality struggle through use of humor and gripping side plots (fathers with OCD, adulterous mothers, and a variety of other societal ills.) Books can help craft morality, but first they must hold interest, which Cohen does, as illustrated in this passage, where Sara calms her cleaning-obsessed father:

Knowing full well it’s like giving the alcoholic a beer, I hand the bleach to my father. “Try this.”

His wild eyes focus on me, but he says nothing. Just removes the cap, douses his cloth in fluid, and wipes the sink with it. He stands back and watches the sink go from shiny and silver with wetness back to mottled and dusty-looking silver. The sound of microbes screaming, dying, is nearly audible, and right away, I see his jaw slacken and relax.

Columbine, a study of devastating consequences, and Little Black Lies, a storied slice of emotional pain turned ugly, both show adult’s blind to the world of psychic, physical, and social violence teenagers must navigate.

Adolescence is a time our children must face the world without the constancy of adult presence, still we can’t afford to turn over the reigns of protection prematurely. Thank you investigative writer Dave Cullen and novelist Tish Cohen for reminding us of the importance of our vigilance.

[BOOK BUTTERFLY · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine you are a teenage girl and your mom runs out on your family. Then your dad transplants you into a new town where you have no friends and are forced to attend the most intimidating prep school on the planet. Oh and by the way, you also have to deal with your dad's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which is rapidly spiraling out of control and made worse by his chosen profession! In Little Black Lies, Sara Black’s whole world is turned upside down when her mom runs away to France. If you were in her shoes, would you be tempted to hide the truth too?

Tish Cohen has created a character both endearing and relatable in Sara Black. When I was reading Little Black Lies, I could definitely put myself in her shoes and sympathize with her character. If I was her, I never would've thought one seemingly innocent lie would spiral so far out of control either! The book really started moving full steam ahead for me though when Sara discovered her dad had been circling their vintage VW bus, checking and rechecking the locks for countless hours throughout the night. Until that point, I didn’t truly understand the extent to which OCD can affect a person. Nor did it ever occur to me what it does to people like Sara who must live with the OCD sufferer and try to help them. I also appreciated how we were shown the intermittent flashbacks to earlier events. Through those glimpses, I was able to gain new insight into Sara and Charlie’s characters.

Anton students refer to themselves as “Ants” and Tish Cohen has incorporated interesting ant factoids into each chapter. The chapter titles were also witty little word plays that directly related to the story line such as “Skirtie come home”, “Petting Pool” and “Slush Snooker”. I found these extremely amusing as well. The following is an example of one of the ant factoids—

“Amazon ants take other ant species as slaves. The Amazon worker ants lie idle as these slaves do all the work- even feeding the slave masters by regurgitating into the Amazon ants’ mouths”.

Little Black Lies was an extremely well written novel with a lot of heart. My favorite aspect of the book was that the consequences of Sara’s actions were completely believable. There was no magical twist that saved the day and tied up everything with a big red bow. I would love to see the lives of secondary characters like Carling explored in a second novel too. As the most vicious girl in school (there's always one, isn't there?), Carling Burnack was such a detestable person that I found myself really loving to hate her. I would've been interested to learn more about her dysfunctional family life and how she acted when her minions weren't around.

I really hope Tish Cohen is able to write a sequel to Little Black Lies- I'll definitely be eager to check it out!

[Rachael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sara Black is so not thrilled about moving. In fact, she’s not too thrilled about her life either. Her mother recently ran away to France with her new boyfriend, and her father’s OCD has been getting worse since her mother left. Now she has to leave behind her best friend and shot at valedictorian in Lundon, Massachusetts when her father takes a job as a janitor at the elite Anton High in Boston. Anton is no ordinary school. Sara’s new classmates make her intelligence look average and live for competition. Right away, Sara knows she’ll never be accepted for being the janitor’s daughter. The Ants seem to think Sara is from London, and with that, Sara’s first lie is born. But it doesn’t stop there, because the lies are so much easier than the truth. Sara’s lies start to build up like a house of cards as her homework piles up, her new friends get nosy, and her father’s OCD worsens still. How much will Sara lie before the truth can no longer be salvaged?

The idea behind Little Black Lies is not very original, particularly the “girl moves to new school and lies to fit in” storyline, but this novel is nonetheless enjoyable. Sara is a realistic protagonist; she loves her dad but worries his OCD is destroying him, she’s hurt by her mother’s absence, and though she deeply misses her hometown and best friend, she’s enticed by the power and glitz of most popular girl Carling. Despite her many lies, Sara is very likable and easy to sympathize with. The reader grows to really care about her and the consequences of all her lies. Though the minor characters are somewhat poorly developed and at times unbelievable, and even though the story’s ending is very predictable, this novel was made more intriguing by a scandal in Sara’s past and her father’s OCD. I’ve never read a book that included this disorder before, and it’s interesting to see how both Sara and her father deal with the problems it creates. I also loved learning about earlier events in Sara’s life that led up to her present situations even if the flashbacks were sometimes distracting. My only other issue with this novel is that Cohen seemed to be trying too hard to include symbols and metaphors in her writing, and this also distracted me from the story. Overall, Little Black Lies is a moderately well written and ultimately hopeful story that will entertain readers.

Little Black Lies will be enjoyed by teen girls who also liked the Private series by Kate Brian; the Upper Class series by Hobson Brown, Taylor Materne, and Caroline Says; and How Not to Be Popular by Jennifer Ziegler.

reposted from http://thebookmuncher.blogspot.com

[Faye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sara Black is tiptoeing across a fraying tightrope.
As the new eleventh grader at Anton High – the most elite public school in the country – she sticks out like an old VW bus in a parking lot full of shiny BMWs. But being the new kid also brings a certain advantageous anonymity.
In Anton High’s world of privilege, intelligence, and wealth, Sara can escape her family’s tarnished past and become whomever she wants.
And what’s the harm in telling a few little black lies when it can lead to popularity? That is, until another it girl at Anton becomes jealous of Sara’s social climbing.
With her balance evaporating, one small push could bring Sara crashing down.


Hmmm...Little Black Lies is an awesome book! I loved it. It had all the good qualities in a book i was looking for, it was well written, witty, and the characters were believable. I loved the message in the book, as the story goes on Sara learns some important lessons about the value of a good parent(i mean her dad is awesome), the love of a friend, and the importance of honesty.Because a little black lie can lead to just a BIG web of lies.



Sara was my favorite character, being the main character she took on those challenges in life like her dad's OCD, her parents divorce(her mom being so far away in) no friends, and a new school.I think a lot of teens can relate to her. The only problem i had with her was the lies, but i wasn't surprised that she was just making an invented life to impress her peers well the High School Mean Girl and her clique. At one point in the book I was so mad at Sara because of what she said about her father. At times i really did think she didn't deserve a father like Charlie.But that's what made her believable because she had her flaws, it made her human. I liked Poppy too! I wish she had a bigger role in the book. I guess we can call her the weird girl who video camera's everything but she knows who she is and what she wants. All The characters were awesome(LEO!!)They well developed, they had strong hero/heroine personalities.



I liked the way Tish Cohen dealt with lying(being a troublesome/difficult issue). As much as i like Sara i didn't like her lying. But I'm not angel either.In the end it proved how much trouble you can cause and how much you can hurt people. "Honesty is KEY",as my teacher would always say and never to abandon the people you love most. As for the romance, It wasn’t a big part of the book, but when there was some(tease lol) it was sweet. The ending was perfecto! and Leo and Sara are a cute couple. I'm happy with the ending.So if you haven't read this book you should!

[Carmen Yeung · Rating 4 out of 5]

_______Spoiler Alert______ ._.
I got hooked into this book by the title, because lies is a really general theme, i got so caught up with what is going to happen that i didn't only read this book in school, i read it anywhere until i finished it. This book is the similar to the other book i was reading at the same time called Shattering Glass, because they are both talking about popularity and what they will do just to achieve that spot. Sara the protagonist is a really sweet girl, well before she moved to attend the school named Anton Highschool. Anton was a smart school and only rich and smart girls can enter, except for Sara, because she is a math genius but poor. Sara who was mistaken from living from Lundon into London, people admire her and her 'origin'. She kept those lies to herself, because she figured she can finally become someone new, someone where everyone looked up upon, not because of her brain, because of her popularity. Soon she challenged Carling, schools most richest and smart girl. They soon became friends. Sara's dad Charlie is still in the picture, because he worked in her school as a janitor. Their relationship is more like mother and son, because Charlie's OCD made him always angry and always do the same thing over and over again. She still loved her dad. After talking to her dad, she had decided to move back to her old home town, lundon. Her mom was there and her old best friend mandy was there too. She will keep those lies to herself and hope everything was just how it use to be.

This book was not as exciting as Shattering Glass, but i still liked it, because after all it was more understandable, because i can connect to girls easily. Also i find Sara really funny, because she connect math with anything in her life, making equations counting and even graphs. I love her. She is so interesting, because Sara as a character is very dynamic and she was changing through out the story, until the end she became the person she was before. It is easy to connect with, because it is about a highschool and teenagers tend to change to suit their surrounding. People change to adapt, so do we. We dont change as much, because we are suited into this enviroment, because we been living in NYC for a long time. I can connect with Sara becase i love math too, its just that i'm not smart enough to be called a math genius :P. I would love to be friends with Sara, she looks like a very humorous and friendly person. I loved this book :).

[Lindsay Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Black Lies
By Tish Cohen

Publisher: Egmont USA
# of pages: 320
Age Rating: +12
My Rating: 4 Stars
Where I got it: Won from a contest

Synopsis:
Sara Black is tiptoeing across a fraying tightrope.
As the new eleventh grader at Anton High – the most elite public school in the country – she sticks out like an old VW bus in a parking lot full of shiny BMWs. But being the new kid also brings a certain advantageous anonymity.
In Anton High’s world of privilege, intelligence, and wealth, Sara can escape her family’s tarnished past and become whomever she wants.
And what’s the harm in telling a few little black lies when it can lead to popularity? That is, until another it girl at Anton becomes jealous of Sara’s social climbing.
With her balance evaporating, one small push could bring Sara crashing down.

Review:
When I first got this book, I didn't know if I would like it or not, but I ended-up enjoying this book. It was very believable and realistic, everyone seem like real people.
And with Sara, you could sympathize with her, after all, her mom left her, her Dad, charlie's OCD is destroying him and she had to move to a new town and go to a new school. So there is alot of pressure of wanting to fit in so....What harm can one little black lie do? alot of harm.
I really like how the author made Sarah like a real girl, even when she has told alot of lies, she is not happy about it and she has a good heart. I also really like Sara relationship with her Dad, in alot of books, I don't see that at all.
I felt so sorry for poor Charlie, with his OCD that's hurting him. There wasn't alot of romance in here but the romance that they did have, it was cute. :D
The plot was very nice, it's kind of like those books that have school and popular girls that enjoy hurting other girl except that this book was clean, it's a book that I would give to younger girls to read.
I really enjoy this book and I think that you will enjoy it too.
I give it 4 stars.

Enjoy! :D:D:D

[Karmen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sara Black brings another shade of colour into her kind of white lies. Little Black Lies, a novel from Tish Cohen, tells the journey of a domino-effect of fibs told by Sara in an attempt to create a past she never got to have. Wiping the slate clean, she is a new student to prestigious Anton High School, the students informally named “ants”, and given the chance to make friends with popular girl Carling Burnack, with whom Sara shows infatuation for. Meanwhile, the protagonist’s ailing father is the school’s new janitor, the real reason for Sara’s admission into Anton High, who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a mental disease she describes as: OCD is like a puffy dandelion wishie…They will find a place to burrow and, sooner or later, will sprout again. How Sara deals with her new social life, OCD father/janitor, and the piercing knowledge of her mother’s departure comes together in an amazing connection of facing reality, letting go, and ultimately telling the truth.

Little Black Lies deceives us with its stereotypical synopsis of a chain of lies for self-benefit, and the inevitable result of the truth that is exposed. Taking from this, Tish Cohen presents a reality-oriented main character, result of a teen pregnancy, living with the knowledge that she was born ten years too early. Sara’s rebellious personality and casual Dubble Bubble t-shirt made her lovable and relatable to. Following her journey as a “popular groupie” felt like I was walking through it myself.

Headed at the start of every chapter are facts about the insect ants, giving inferred hints on the chapter’s actions. It kept me guessing which character Cohen could have been referring to.

A novel of deceit and family, self-realization and search for identity, Little Black Lies painted a world that draws to a complete and realistic conclusion. The characters are brought to life in their interactions, and the lies are but a trigger to the events that occur.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

After hearing some mixed thoughts on this one, I wasn't really sure what to expect. Would I love it or hate it? Though, as it turns out, I ended up really enjoying Little Black Lies and I think you may also.

In Sara, Tish created a character that is complex and easy to relate to in the fact that she's dealing with fitting in along with peer pressure, the affects of her parents separation, the typical stress of school, and other teen problems. While I did like Sara, I had a bit of hard time accepting how she treated her father for most of the book. I mean I can understand that because of his OCD problem, she may have a hard time admitting/ dealing with it, but she could have done a lot of things differently then she did. Though, now that I think about this, maybe Tish is trying to show that while anyone can make mistakes you have to make a bigger person out of yourself by learning from them which Sara had by the end. I also really enjoyed reading about Sara's neighbor, her best friend from back home, and the guy she liked whose names I can't remember currently.

The plot was also pretty great. Since it was basically a Gossip Girl like novel but instead of having drugs, sex, and swear words it switched all of them out with a far better thing: actual substance. One of my favorite parts was reading the little facts about Ants that related to Anton High students and seeing what it would be like going to a school as prestigious as Anton was. Also, it did have the tendency to throw in a random twist and turn at times that I also enjoyed.

Overall, Little Black Lies is yet another great novel by Egmont even with the few flaws it had, and I know for a fact that not only will I be reading more of Egmont novels, but Trish's too!

Grade: B+

Little Black Lies is now out!

FTC: I received this book from RS at Egmot in exchange for a honest review.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little Black Lies was a wonderful read! It wasn't that hard to get into at all and by the time your halfway through with it, it's hard to put down! First off, I'd like to mention that one of the reasons I was drawn to this book because it takes places in Boston, one of my favorite places and it has to do with a private school -well, technically this school isn't one, but it might as well be. And Tish Cohen does this neat little thing with the chapters, she starts them all out with a quote about ants, which the students at Anton High calls themselves.

Sara Black never planned on lying, but soon one lie leads to another and pretty soon she's dug herself into a pretty deep hole that she's having a lot of trouble getting out of. What I liked about Sara is that even though she does get mixed up with some pretty snobby girls like CARLING, Isabella, and Sloane, she still had a good heart and at times I couldn't help but feel bad for her. I felt that the book was realistic and it was easy to see where she was coming from. In the end, there are consequences for everyone and I was glad to see Sara coming clean of all her lies.

I loved the relationship between Sara and her dad. I admired Sara's dad, Charlie, was always there for her (especially when her mother isn't.) I'm glad that this book talked a lot about what Charlie had go through with his OCD. I wasn't expecting Little Black Lies to talk about the seriousness of the disorder, but I'm glad it does! Another thing that I really, really liked about the book is that it actually talks about the hard work that students actually get. I relate to Sara so much when she spent a lot of her time studying to maintain her grades. But, unlike Sara, I am no mathwhiz! The ending of the book was really good. I liked the bit of relationship that Sara has, its a nice touch.

[Christina]

By Tish Cohen Pages:320

Little Black Lies by Tish Cohen is about a girl named Sarah who is new student at Anton high school. She doesnt know anyone at that school so she has to start off by making friends. So she starts talking to the "popular kids" and she starts telling them about how her life used to be before she came to this high school. She thinks that her life is boring and that people wouldnt like her if she told them some of the real things that happen in her life so she makes up lies to try and seem "cool. that is until her classmates find out she is lying and then she becomes one of the most hated kids in school for trying tobe someone that shes not. She then apologizes them but they still cant trust her because she lied already but she still has friends that stick by her. Sarah learned that she could have told the truth about her father being a janitor and then she wouldnt have to have lied about other stuff. She also learned that you dont have to lie to people to be cool and excepted and you just have to be yourself.
i thought this book was good and that Sarah should have just told the truth and then people would have still been her friend. i understand that she is the new girl and all but she still didnt need to lie to people because most people at her school dont trust her. i would reccomend this book for people that like stories about high school and the experiences you have in high school. This book was a good book to teach people that they dont need to lie to be accepted they just have to be themselves. She had moved from another town to this new school and was embarrased that her father worked as a janitor, but she was very concerned about what people thought about her. She would do anything to have friends and to not be that kid that just sits alone at lunch by themselves. Overall i enjoyed reading this book.

[Canadian Children's Book Centre]

Reviewed by Lisa Doucet

As Sara begins her new life in Boston, attending a very exclusive and academically intense private school for only the most gifted of students, she has a lot on her mind. First there is her mother’s recent desertion and the scandalous, hurtful circumstances of her departure. Then there is her father and what appears to be a flare up of his obsessive-compulsive disorder. On top of all of that is the arduous workload at Anton High and the awkwardness of trying to make new friends and find a place for herself in her new surroundings. When popular girl Carling takes a sudden interest in Sara and welcomes her into her elite circle of friends, Sara thinks things may be looking up for her. Unfortunately, even though she sees what Carling is all about, she still feels the need to hide the truth about herself and her life in order to feel she belongs with this crowd. But as her steady stream of half-truths and lies start hurting the people she loves, she finally comes to realize what really matters to her. Like many of today’s teen novels, this one illustrates some of the harsh realities of modern high school life, and the cruelty that can exist amongst high schoolers who seek to hide their own vulnerability by preying on others’ weaknesses. Although Carling and her sidekicks are fairly stereotypical “mean girls”, Cohen does point out some of the underlying reasons behind their facades and she creates a very believable character in Sara, whose efforts to fit in nearly cost her a very steep price. And although things work out for Sara in the end, she still suffers the consequences of her unwise decisions. The author also uses lovely turns of phrase and vividly descriptive passages to make this more than just another teen problem novel.

Canadian Children's Book News (Fall 2009, Vol. 32, No. 4)

[Steph | bookedinsaigon · Rating 3 out of 5]

LITTLE BLACK LIES is a high school drama-filled novel, similar to Gossip Girl except without the same high level of sexual escapades, and set in the most unusual of locations: a nerdy public school. Don’t let the academia fool you, though: the girls are still as bitchy, the drama still as intense.

The characters in LITTLE BLACK LIES, while not immediately endearing, still grow on you after about halfway through the book. We can feel for Sara as she navigates life without her mother, in a new school full of classmates who would do nearly anything to beat their friends. The stresses of her new life make Sara’s lies and actions justifiable, though not necessarily admirable. I particularly admired Cohen’s treatment of OCD in this novel, as a disorder that breaks hearts, strains relationships, and pushes teens to lie for the sake of preserving their social status.

I mentioned earlier that I thought it was a watered-down version of Gossip Girl. There are definitely still bitchy girls who manipulate, blackmail, and hurt one another. While the antics of the Anton High “in” crowd of are amateurs compared to other mean girls in media, they’re still believable enough, and you will still feel for Carling, the head mean girl with the bad family life, despite her manipulations. Cohen generally succeeds at balancing readers’ hatred of and caring for these characters.

LITTLE BLACK LIES will appeal to a wide range of teenagers who can identify with Sara’s difficulty in balancing her family life and school life. It’s a good story, and even if it took a while to get to its feet, my nervousness for what will happen to Sara in her huge, tentative house of lies kept me reading into the night.

[Sara Grochowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved Little Black Lies! The main character, Sara, takes lying to a whole new level, and, while I don't think I could take it as far as she did, Tish Cohen mades it easy for me to understand Sara's actions.

I really appreciate that the author incorporated OCD into the plot. OCD is one of those conditions that everyone knows about, but many people haven't experienced first hand. I could imagine how debilitating it could be for the individual with OCD, but I never really considered the impact it could have on his or her family. Reading about Sara's father having OCD and the reactions of her high school classmates really made me think about how I would react in a similar situation as a onlooker or as a family member. It was actually really emotion and a lot more serious than I'd anticipated - I came very close to crying during a couple of passages.

While reading Little Black Lies, I was often frustrated with Sara. She seems to be a great girl with a lot going for her, but her low self-esteem and focus on what her peers think of her drive her to lie and do other horrible things. However, when Sara's past and her home life was revealed as I progressed through the book, I found myself sympathizing with her - even as she hurt the people that cared about her the most, and ultimately, herself. By the end of the book, I was proud of Sara's growth, she really came into her own!

Of course, I must mention the romance! There is a minor romantic plot line that I really enjoyed. It wasn't a main theme by any means, but it tied in well. I felt like the romance could have been explored a bit more, as the boy has a bit of a history that would have been nice to explore more. His story ended up being a lot less dramatic than I felt was originally implied.

[Kelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

So Little Black Lies? What can I say but that I loved it. It was well written, funny, sad, loveable, it was everything a terrific book should be. The characters were great- well developed with strong personalities and it was hard not to like the main character, even with her lies. Although I liked her, there was always something nagging in the back of my mind about her that I didn’t care for. I didn’t like that she went to such lengths just so people wouldn’t find out she lived in an apartment with her janitor father. Also, she was always sucking up to the most popular girl. Even though at times I didn’t like her, Sara’s flaws added to the premise of the book, and made the plot keep moving. Her father was a great character. His OCD was something that really opened my eyes to how horrible the disease really is. OCD has always been kind of unreal to me, but Little Black Lies made me realize how serious it is.

Lying is a difficult subject, but Tish Cohen perfectly dealt with it. I didn’t always like how much Sara lied, but by the end it proved how much trouble you can cause and the people you will hurt. Sara learned some important lessons and Little Black Lies showed how important it is to be honest, and never to abandon the people you love most. Romance wasn’t a big part of the novel, but the small bit there was I liked. The ending was perfect and Leo and Sara are a great couple. I loved how in the end they both opened up about their pasts. Sara’s past was one thing that made me understand her actions a little more. All in all, I would highly recommend Little Black Lies. I definitely agree with all the high reviews it’s gotten.

Also, I really like the cover. The vintage car is so cute, and the different pictures are great.

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars

[Kait · Rating 5 out of 5]

I could tell from the very beginning that I was going to like Little Black Lies. It’s one of those books where once you start it, there is no stopping for anything other than necessity. It kept me hooked right until the last sentence and even after that it stuck with me.

The first thing I really liked about the book was Sara. She may have been a huge liar and kind of selfish in some of her acts but I still liked her. She didn’t seem superficial and you could tell by all the guilt she felt how much she hated what she was doing. She was also really funny. She was super clumsy and always tripping over something or running into someone. And usually it was a very cute senior boy.

Also, the story was just really entertaining. I kept reading because I really wanted to know what crazy thing Sara would do next and how she would manage to get herself out of it. And the girls were insane. They were evil. I knew it from the beginning but I didn’t really find out how evil until the very end.

Oh and Sara’s dad was so cute. I felt so bad for him with his OCD and I just wanted to hug him. He had so many things going on with his life but all he ever cared about was Sara. I couldn’t believe that his wife just up and left him, knowing how much pain and trouble it would cause him. No matter what, I could never like Sara’s mom and nothing she did made herself seem any better. I hated her!

Overall, I guess you can clearly see how much I liked the book. While there were some things, like Sara’s confusing relationship with Leo, I didn’t really understand until the end, it all worked out well. Definitely see if your local bookstore has a copy of this because it is super worth it. =]

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book because it took a completely different spin on the often used private school/popularity storyline. I found it really interesting that the author chose to set this story at a school for geniuses, where the stakes are a bit higher and its each student for themselves as they compete to get into the best colleges. I enjoyed the fact that even though there weren’t the typical cheerleaders or “popular girls,” the social hierarchy remained strong and we saw a new type of mean girl. One with brains, money and power.

One of my favorite parts of the story was Sara’s relationship with her dad Charlie. Charlie has OCD and Sara struggles with helping him through it, especially since her mom skipped out of town to move to Paris with her lover. We saw this emotional maturity in Sara that you don’t find in many other YA main characters. Sara was fiercely protective over her dad Charlie, although we do see her struggle with finding the balance between her loyalty to him and her desire to fit in with Carling and her friends. Sara is ashamed to tell her friends that her dad works at Anton has a janitor, so she lies and says he is a surgeon. Sara feels obviously guilty, but still struggles to tell the truth, especially after all of the other lies she has told.

I love how Cohen slowly revealed more and more details about Sara’s life throughout the book that led us to finally understand all of her motives and created a full picture. Short flashbacks help us understand Sara’s complicated relationship with her mother. Each plot line served a purpose and Cohen expertly told the story in a way that kept the reader engaged.

[Aileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sara Black has just been enrolled in on of the most prestigious public high school, Anton High, no one gets in after their freshmen year and it's almost impossible to pass the test, she got in as a junior. Which helps her stick out more then she usually would riding in her dad's old VW bus. When her new classmates mistake her coming from Lundon, Massachusetts, for London, England, she doesn't correct them. She rather likes this new found popularity she has started to develop, until another girl at Anton becomes jealous of Sara's social climbing. When the girl is close to discovering the truth behind Sara's lies one little slip up could ruin Sara's reputation and blooming romance with one super hottie, Leo, the guy who also happens to be dating her new found friend Carling. the problem is Leo and Sara just keep bumping into each other, sometimes literally. Sara doesn't want to hurt her new friend Carling, especially since Carling knows a bit to much about her, but also because she just doesn't want to become one of those obnoxious boyfriend stealing girls she hates. This is a story that is filled with real life situations like divorce, OCD, honesty, lies, and starting over. All these things happen every day whether we deal with them or not, and it all fit together very well in the story. Everything seemed to really connect and the way the story progressed was done excellently in my opinion.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Black Lies was a light read that a wide range of teens will enjoyable. It's a well written book that is 100% believable. That was one reason I enjoyed it so much, there was never a moment where you were thinking, "That'd never happen."

Each chapter opens with a random fact about ants, which comes from Anton students referring to themselves as "ants". I thought that was so unique! Tish Cohen created a main character you can sympathize for and also connect with, but I found myself frustrated at Sara at times. One lie would build into another, and she was a character that had nothing but great things for her. Though I do understand her struggle to balance school and family life. The other characters really grow on you as the novel goes on. There were a few characters I was not crazy about in the beginning, but were my favorites by the end.

I loved the underlying romance throughout the entire novel. I would have liked to see a little more of it, as I fell in love with the boy and would've liked to know a bit more about him. I liked the involvement of OCD with Sara's father. It really makes you understand how living with someone with ODC can affect your life. Little Black Lies ends with an ending to make you go "Awww"

Little Black Lies was a novel I really enjoyed reading, and should Tish Cohen decide to continue Sara and the other characters story, it'd be a book I'd be first in line to buy.