I, Trissy

by Norma Fox Mazer

Trissy Jane Beers knows when she's being bribed. That's exactly how she feels when her father moves out of their house and gives her a typewriter so she can put down on paper the things she's always making the mistake of saying out loud.

Trissy feels good about pouring out her problems on the typewriter. And she has plenty of problems, what with her parents' upcoming divorce, the fight with her best friend Steffi, her father's new girlfriend and her mother's boyfriend.

Lately all Trissy seems to be good for is finding trouble and quarreling with everybody. Are things ever going to be right again?

Genres: Young Adult, Childrens, Fiction

150 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1972

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

[Andie Nash · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was so damn funny. I must have read it about a hundred times when I was nine (around the time of my parents' separation and divorce). I loved the way the heroine used humor and journaling to get through her parents' messy break-up. It was both comforting and inspiring to me.

ETA -- the book's publication date, 1986, refers to a later edition. It was first published in the early '70s and I read it in 1983.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was 12, and I so identified with its title character, that I asked for a typewriter for Christmas that year. What followed from there was a lifetime of keeping a journal, and the writing of some really bad poetry. I was really inspired by Trissy, and I would love to get a copy of this book to read it again.

...I wonder what Trissy would be like at 35?

[Debbie Hoskins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have the yellowed paperback on my shelf!
Just like Harriet the Spy, it gave a weird young girl permission to write and make pictures with a typewriter!! Very creative. Thanks Norma Fox Mazer. You influenced me immensely with this book!

[Jennie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a child I have been looking for it everywhere and Bam here it is .. I could not stop reading it .. I am so glad I found it again..I want to share it with my little girls :)

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this one as a kid. i think the cover was yellow. my older brother read it first...we've always had the same taste in books. i seem to remember i was fascinated by the swear words lol

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a delightful story from 1971. Trissy is 11.5 and pours out her thoughts and frustrations using the typewriter given to her by her dad. She struggles with her parents' divorce, her siblings, and her friendships. Plenty of humor and painfully accurate.

1/47 tbr box.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny spin on a sad teen subject. If the story took place in today's time, Trissy would have ended up going to counciling raither then getting a typewriter to work out her angst. The story itself was timeless.

[Ruthenator · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found a bunch of my old books in my basement and decided to give this a re-read. Kinda weird.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh dear Lord. It took me 3 hours to figure out the name of this book. I kept Googling... pink book, 80s, girl sitting at typewriter and NOTHING. Finally I started looking up Tessa? No... then it occurred to me... I, Treeny? No. I, TRISSY. EFFING A I FOUND IT.

All of that to say that I read this book a lot as a kid for some reason but had no memories of the plot except she would type curse words on her typewriter. And of course, I remembered the cover.

Ok, now I can go about my day doing other things.

[Beau Manglass · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't do a lot of rereading books and damn, I knew I read this one a lot as a kid but it's wild to look back on now and see how formative it was. (For historical accuracy, my "read x times" should probably be at like 58, haha.) I still think the concept and format of this book is so creative and memorable. It's definitely aged but revisiting it was a joy.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite books from when I was in my early teens. It's still on my bookshelf.

[Jane Pierce · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ah, just reviewing an old memory/book before passing it on to a niece.

[Elisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a kid. Give a girl a typewriter...

[Jennifer Shanahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED. A blast from the past!

[Isa Stamos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book as a kid.