When We First Met

by Norma Fox Mazer

Jenny Pennoyer causes trouble for herself and distress for her family by falling in love with Rob Montana, whose mother killed Jenny's sister in an automobile accident two years earlier.

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

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Norma Fox Mazer was an American author and teacher, best known for her books for children and young adults.

She was born in New York City but grew up in Glens Falls, New York, with parents Michael and Jean Garlan Fox. Mazer graduated from Glens Falls High School, then went to Antioch College, where she met Harry Mazer, whom she married in 1950; they have four children, one of whom, Anne Mazer, is also a writer. She also studied at Syracuse University.

New York Times Book Review contributor Ruth I. Gordon wrote that Mazer "has the skill to reveal the human qualities in both ordinary and extraordinary situations as young people mature....it would be a shame to limit their reading to young people, since they can show an adult reader much about the sometimes painful rite of adolescent passage into adulthood."

Among the honors Mazer earned for her writing were a National Book Award nomination in 1973, an American Library Association Notable Book citation in 1976, inclusion on the New York Times Outstanding Books of the Year list in 1976, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1978, an Edgar Award in 1982, German Children's Literature prizes in 1982 and 1989, and a Newbery Medal in 1988.

Mazer taught in the Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children & Young Adults Program at Vermont College.

For more information, please see http://www.answers.com/topic/norma-fo...

Reviews

[Leah Coffin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Remember, girls - as long as a boy is really, really cute and bullies you into going out with him, it doesn't matter if his mother killed your sister!

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh how I loved this book when I was younger. On the back it says "Now an original film seen exclusively on HBO." I wish I could see the film but it's from the early 80s and isn't on VHS/DVD that I can find.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382373/

[Kailey Hanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my favourite books of all time. It's a true struggle between love and family, and right and wrong. Not to mention it's a very real story of how you do the get to choose who you love, no matter how hard you try to fight it.

[Abdelmajid Ouchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book full of romantic events

[Patricia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book when I read it the first time when I was in the 7th grade. The story of two teenagers falling for one another, then the girl finds out who the boy really is...is such a sad love story

[Beya Penn · Rating 5 out of 5]

i liked this book, it had the same thing as romeo and juliet going on. so i loved how they fight for what they what.
i really enjoyed this!

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really the first longer book I read as a teenager, and I loved it! Norma Fox Mazer is a wonderful writer for young adult novels.

[Wendi S. Harrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is outstanding. I read this first as a young teen-ager. The tale of this book coupled with a friend's personal tragedy made me vow to never drink and drive. A vow I have kept. If this were assigned reading in high school prior to Driver's Ed, I wonder if the impact would be shared. I hunted this book down last year and purchased it online, reading it again to myself and then out loud to my husband. What a well-written portrayal of the ricochet of tragedy.

[Natalia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good book, makes you think a lot about what is or not correct, if the love is stronger than anything. The reasons to cuestion their love is so hard to ignore, the trama is amazing. So easy to read. Highly recommend it.

[HannahBeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was entertaining, but not fully emotionally aware.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unresolved story with a rushed ending.

[Shaneeza aziz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I read this decades ago, and I just gave it a reread. I wasn't a fan as a teen of the heavy, tragic story lines, and I'm still not. Because they're heavy and tragic.

And this one, well, Rob and Jenny, two high school seniors fall in love and the mother of the Rob vehicularly manslaughtered the sister of Jenny, two years prior to their meeting. This makes it difficult for Jenny's family to accept Rob and they want them to break up. But. I mean, Rob had nothing to do with his mother's getting tipsy and then driving on a dark, rainy night. That's pretty clear from the get-go. So I feel the conflict is just kind of off. Jenny's mom, and whole family, needs grief counseling, for sure, and so does Rob's mother.

But there are parts that I like. I like Jenny's big, spread out family, with the grown older brothers and the five-year-old sister (Ethel. Yikes. Even in 1982 it seems like you wouldn't do that.)

I really appreciate the beginning when Jenny first sees Rob and it feels like she's connected to him, that she can feel he's going to be somewhere and he is. I can remember walking through the halls of high school and feeling like I must have some connection to someone and just hadn't found them yet. Willing there to be meaning, willing something to happen... Whether or not I believe in their relationship as an adult isn't the point; Jenny and Rob feel like real teenagers to me, circa 1980s.

[Sarah Rigg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in the 1980s but it's been reissued as recently as 2015. Boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, girl finds out that boy's mother is the drunk driver that killed the girl's sister. What a dilemma!