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Anything But Ordinary
From the moment their romance begins in eighth grade, Winifred and Bernie are individualists. They pride themselves on being different, and have each other for support through the tough years of high school. So when they consider college, they send off for the same catalogs, promising never to separate.
But Bernie's mother dies and Bernie more or less drops out of school, becoming an ordinary guy working away in a tire shop, while Winifred goes about as far from New Jersey as a girl can the University of California at Santa Barbara. College is a culture shock to Winifred, but her three savvy roommates teach her how to fit in. By the time Bernie catches up with her again, Winifred has become, well . . . ordinary. Can they rediscover their true selves - and true love?
Told from alternating viewpoints, with a sense of humor and a deep appreciation of first love, Valerie Hobbs's novel captures an endearing young couple's search for independence and identity.
But Bernie's mother dies and Bernie more or less drops out of school, becoming an ordinary guy working away in a tire shop, while Winifred goes about as far from New Jersey as a girl can the University of California at Santa Barbara. College is a culture shock to Winifred, but her three savvy roommates teach her how to fit in. By the time Bernie catches up with her again, Winifred has become, well . . . ordinary. Can they rediscover their true selves - and true love?
Told from alternating viewpoints, with a sense of humor and a deep appreciation of first love, Valerie Hobbs's novel captures an endearing young couple's search for independence and identity.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published February 20, 2007
3 people are currently reading
132 people want to read
About the author
Valerie Hobbs
26 books47 followersValerie Hobbs is the author of many award winning novels for young adults including Sonnys War, Tender, and How Far Would You Have Gotten If I Hadnt Called You Back, for which she was designated a Flying Start author by Publishers Weekly in 1996. Hobbs was the winner of the 1999 PEN/Norma Klein award for an emerging voice of literary merit among American writers of childrens fiction and the Arizona Library Association Young Adult Author of the Year in 2003. Defiance, her most recent middle-grade novel, was given the 2006 most distinguished fiction award by the Childrens Literature Council of Southern California and has been nominated for twelve state awards. "
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
November 18, 2014
They won my heart in five pages, broke it within 30 as intended, and spent the rest of the book tenderly putting it back together. Been a long time since I was that taken with a teenage love story.
August 18, 2019
I was expecting this book to be a simple light hearted read and it was, I guess. But that was it. This book wasn't special in anyway. I didn't care for any of the characters. The ending wasn't satisfying not was the rest of the book. It was just okay. This book is extremely short, only 168 pages but it felt too long. It was just dragging on. The book as a whole was not impressive and quite boring.
The book was poorly written, almost as if it was a middle grade novel.
The book was poorly written, almost as if it was a middle grade novel.
May 12, 2007
Awesome book...it made me cry!! Not like your typical YA in that it is in third-person but the POV really makes this novel I think. The characters are great. The story is so simple but a stand-out for how the feelings really hit home.
Read
April 24, 2020 In middle school, Winifred Owens tried to start a club.
Read p. 5: "What a fine idea Winnifred ... most unpopular girl at Pittstown Middle."
Winifred and Bernie, as the sole members of the Green Hat Club, are inseparable. Their friendship is founded on the need to be anything but ordinary. Together, they buck any and all trends and popular activities of school. Later, when their friendship becomes a romantic relationship, they continue to make all life decisions on the premise of being anything but ordinary.
Then Bernie's mother died. And the love he had for Winnifred, the security in their togetherness, and his desire to be anything but ordinary seemed to dry up.
read p. 18: "So the long and short of it was this ... and Bernie Federman was drowning."
Read p. 5: "What a fine idea Winnifred ... most unpopular girl at Pittstown Middle."
Winifred and Bernie, as the sole members of the Green Hat Club, are inseparable. Their friendship is founded on the need to be anything but ordinary. Together, they buck any and all trends and popular activities of school. Later, when their friendship becomes a romantic relationship, they continue to make all life decisions on the premise of being anything but ordinary.
Then Bernie's mother died. And the love he had for Winnifred, the security in their togetherness, and his desire to be anything but ordinary seemed to dry up.
read p. 18: "So the long and short of it was this ... and Bernie Federman was drowning."
March 13, 2018
Decent
I love Valerie Hobbs, she’s probably my favor author at this point. This is probably my least favorite book of hers. At one point I wanted to kill the characters. The writing was fantastic it’s down fall is that I’m not the target audience. I’m glad I read it though, probably would have liked it a lot more if I read it when I was 15-18.
I love Valerie Hobbs, she’s probably my favor author at this point. This is probably my least favorite book of hers. At one point I wanted to kill the characters. The writing was fantastic it’s down fall is that I’m not the target audience. I’m glad I read it though, probably would have liked it a lot more if I read it when I was 15-18.
December 14, 2018
Honestly - I felt like this was poor writing and a basic story. Definitely not something I recommend.
June 15, 2022
an odd little read but I ultimately enjoyed it, so at least it lives up to the title
July 15, 2013
17 November 2006 ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY by Valerie Hobbs, FSG/Frances Foster Books, March 2007, ISBN: 0-374-30374-6
"Kid, what changed you?"
--The Pretenders
In the back row of the room, "wedged between the makeup girls and the gangsters," there sat tall and gawky Bernie:
"In the eighth grade other kids seemed to know who they were. They were 'into' things. Skateboarding, soccer, Xbox, iPods. Clubs. Eighth grade seemed to be a time for joining clubs. Bernie was a reader and a pretty good chess player, but Pittstown Middle didn't have a Reader's Club or a Chess Club. Playing chess meant you were a nerd, but there wasn't a Nerds' Club either."
Up in front, there sat short and square Winifred:
"Winifred was a front-row girl, one of those with a pop-up arm. No matter the question, Winifred had the full and complete answer. Bernie could tell she was about as popular at Pittstown Middle as the cafeteria meat loaf, except of course with teachers like Mrs. Nelson."
Becoming increasingly frustrated as she proposes a series of clubs for which not a single student expresses any interest -- the International Club, the Journaling Club, the Renaissance Comedy Club, the Live Poets' Society -- Winifred appears at school one day wearing a green knit hat with a bright red pom-pom and proposes formation of a Green Hat Club.
" 'Now, Winifred,' Mrs. Nelson said, 'of what possible social significance is a Green Hat Club?'
"That was when Winifred lost her cool. With a face red as her pom-pom, Winifred stood up and rattled off all the names of the other newly formed clubs -- the Jim Carrey Club, Bling Bling on Mondays, the PBJs (members had to have names that begin with one of those revered three letters.) She saved for last the Fashionistas, all six members of which had worn shocking-pink boas that day and sat in a bunch like a chummy family of flamingos.
" 'Social significance, Mrs. Nelson? Social significance?' By that time, Winifred was on the verge of tears and her voice shook dangerously. 'Popularity, Mrs. Nelson. That's what clubs are all about. Don't you know that?'"
After a couple of weeks of Winifred's incessantly wearing her green hat at school, she is joined at a table in the cafeteria by Bernie who is wearing a 99-cent puke-green stocking cap he's found at Kmart. A minute later they are formulating a club constitution. And thus begins the friendship and subsequent romance between the pair, who pledge their mutual allegiance to always be anything but ordinary.
"Striking out? Well, count me in.
I'm gonna stand by right your side through thick and thin
Ain't no doubt. Gonna win.
A walk through hell ain't bad compared to where we've been."
-- Clarence Clemmons & Jackson Browne, "You're a Friend of Mine"
ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY is a book that quickly surprised me, for after only a couple of dozen pages the tale morphs into a story of the pair as two college-age kids who are now connected by considerable mutual history and separated by...well, by the stuff that life throws at each of them.
For Bernie, it is the death of his mother during his senior year of high school: "His mother was strong and gentle and funny. She made Bernie laugh, even when he didn't feel like it. Like a best friend, she believed in him." With his mother gone, Bernie is alone with his father, a man with whom he has rarely talked, "a man who worked in a tire shop from six a.m. until six p.m." and "was snoring in his La-Z-Boy halfway through Wheel of Fortune."
With his father drinking, and the house a pigsty, Bernie hears a little voice asking him, "Why bother?" and so it is that Bernie lets his grades -- and their dreams -- slip, and Winifred heads across the country the following fall to the university in California that they were supposed to be attending together.
In Valerie Hobbs' finest piece of writing to date, this smooth and quirky tale portrays the very believable transformations that each of the two young adults undergo. The question is, after everything they go through, are Bernie and Winifred really still the same friends-in-love deep down inside?
" She smiled a sad, brave smile. 'Sometimes I look at you and suddenly I remember some silly little thing we did. Nobody was as close as us, nobody!' "
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_... http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/facult...
"Kid, what changed you?"
--The Pretenders
In the back row of the room, "wedged between the makeup girls and the gangsters," there sat tall and gawky Bernie:
"In the eighth grade other kids seemed to know who they were. They were 'into' things. Skateboarding, soccer, Xbox, iPods. Clubs. Eighth grade seemed to be a time for joining clubs. Bernie was a reader and a pretty good chess player, but Pittstown Middle didn't have a Reader's Club or a Chess Club. Playing chess meant you were a nerd, but there wasn't a Nerds' Club either."
Up in front, there sat short and square Winifred:
"Winifred was a front-row girl, one of those with a pop-up arm. No matter the question, Winifred had the full and complete answer. Bernie could tell she was about as popular at Pittstown Middle as the cafeteria meat loaf, except of course with teachers like Mrs. Nelson."
Becoming increasingly frustrated as she proposes a series of clubs for which not a single student expresses any interest -- the International Club, the Journaling Club, the Renaissance Comedy Club, the Live Poets' Society -- Winifred appears at school one day wearing a green knit hat with a bright red pom-pom and proposes formation of a Green Hat Club.
" 'Now, Winifred,' Mrs. Nelson said, 'of what possible social significance is a Green Hat Club?'
"That was when Winifred lost her cool. With a face red as her pom-pom, Winifred stood up and rattled off all the names of the other newly formed clubs -- the Jim Carrey Club, Bling Bling on Mondays, the PBJs (members had to have names that begin with one of those revered three letters.) She saved for last the Fashionistas, all six members of which had worn shocking-pink boas that day and sat in a bunch like a chummy family of flamingos.
" 'Social significance, Mrs. Nelson? Social significance?' By that time, Winifred was on the verge of tears and her voice shook dangerously. 'Popularity, Mrs. Nelson. That's what clubs are all about. Don't you know that?'"
After a couple of weeks of Winifred's incessantly wearing her green hat at school, she is joined at a table in the cafeteria by Bernie who is wearing a 99-cent puke-green stocking cap he's found at Kmart. A minute later they are formulating a club constitution. And thus begins the friendship and subsequent romance between the pair, who pledge their mutual allegiance to always be anything but ordinary.
"Striking out? Well, count me in.
I'm gonna stand by right your side through thick and thin
Ain't no doubt. Gonna win.
A walk through hell ain't bad compared to where we've been."
-- Clarence Clemmons & Jackson Browne, "You're a Friend of Mine"
ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY is a book that quickly surprised me, for after only a couple of dozen pages the tale morphs into a story of the pair as two college-age kids who are now connected by considerable mutual history and separated by...well, by the stuff that life throws at each of them.
For Bernie, it is the death of his mother during his senior year of high school: "His mother was strong and gentle and funny. She made Bernie laugh, even when he didn't feel like it. Like a best friend, she believed in him." With his mother gone, Bernie is alone with his father, a man with whom he has rarely talked, "a man who worked in a tire shop from six a.m. until six p.m." and "was snoring in his La-Z-Boy halfway through Wheel of Fortune."
With his father drinking, and the house a pigsty, Bernie hears a little voice asking him, "Why bother?" and so it is that Bernie lets his grades -- and their dreams -- slip, and Winifred heads across the country the following fall to the university in California that they were supposed to be attending together.
In Valerie Hobbs' finest piece of writing to date, this smooth and quirky tale portrays the very believable transformations that each of the two young adults undergo. The question is, after everything they go through, are Bernie and Winifred really still the same friends-in-love deep down inside?
" She smiled a sad, brave smile. 'Sometimes I look at you and suddenly I remember some silly little thing we did. Nobody was as close as us, nobody!' "
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_... http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/facult...
May 25, 2011
Reviewed for Flamingnet Reviews
When he is thirteen, Bernie Federman moves to Pittstown, New Jersey. Proudly different than anybody else, he doesn't know anyone in the eighth grade, and from the very first day of school sits in the back of the classroom. Then he meets Winifred Owens, also fiercely individualistic, and possibly the only person less popular at school than Bernie. They fall in love and begin planning their life together. Both very intelligent, they are at the top of their class and apply to all the same colleges, neither of them dreaming they'll end up somewhere different than the other.
Then, shortly before graduation, tragedy strikes for Bernie, and all his dreams fall apart. He stops going to school, dropping to the bottom of the class, and starts working in a tire shop, abandoning his plans for college. Winifred is heartbroken, but presses on, going across the country to attend the University of California at Santa Barbara. Once there, she realizes just how much she doesn't fit in, and with the help of her new roommates, she gets a makeover and becomes 'Wini,' changing her major from nanoscience to communications and spending her time partying, gossiping, and drinking lattes. Meanwhile, Bernie realizes he may have lost her forever, so he travels crosscountry to catch up with her. However, once he finds her again and realizes that she's become 'ordinary,' it may be too late for them.
I really loved this book. It's different than a lot of the teen romances available today in that it deals with the dark horses, the underdogs, the "unpopular" kids. You really find yourself rooting for Bernie and Winifred to make it work, for Winifred to wake up and realize how silly she's being, and you want them to get back together in the end. From the moment I picked it up, I didn't stop reading ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY, and I would definitely recommend it. It's a great look at the first year of college and how much it can change a person (for better or for worse), and although the ending is slightly bittersweet, it still leaves the reader with a smile. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for other books by Valerie Hobbs.
Adult guidance recommended, as this book involves the lives of college students and deals with alcohol and sexual situations.
When he is thirteen, Bernie Federman moves to Pittstown, New Jersey. Proudly different than anybody else, he doesn't know anyone in the eighth grade, and from the very first day of school sits in the back of the classroom. Then he meets Winifred Owens, also fiercely individualistic, and possibly the only person less popular at school than Bernie. They fall in love and begin planning their life together. Both very intelligent, they are at the top of their class and apply to all the same colleges, neither of them dreaming they'll end up somewhere different than the other.
Then, shortly before graduation, tragedy strikes for Bernie, and all his dreams fall apart. He stops going to school, dropping to the bottom of the class, and starts working in a tire shop, abandoning his plans for college. Winifred is heartbroken, but presses on, going across the country to attend the University of California at Santa Barbara. Once there, she realizes just how much she doesn't fit in, and with the help of her new roommates, she gets a makeover and becomes 'Wini,' changing her major from nanoscience to communications and spending her time partying, gossiping, and drinking lattes. Meanwhile, Bernie realizes he may have lost her forever, so he travels crosscountry to catch up with her. However, once he finds her again and realizes that she's become 'ordinary,' it may be too late for them.
I really loved this book. It's different than a lot of the teen romances available today in that it deals with the dark horses, the underdogs, the "unpopular" kids. You really find yourself rooting for Bernie and Winifred to make it work, for Winifred to wake up and realize how silly she's being, and you want them to get back together in the end. From the moment I picked it up, I didn't stop reading ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY, and I would definitely recommend it. It's a great look at the first year of college and how much it can change a person (for better or for worse), and although the ending is slightly bittersweet, it still leaves the reader with a smile. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for other books by Valerie Hobbs.
Adult guidance recommended, as this book involves the lives of college students and deals with alcohol and sexual situations.
January 22, 2013
“Anything but Ordinary,” by Valerie Hobbs is a young adult novel that recalls a love story of two young individualists. At the age of 13, Bernie Federman’s family moved to Pittstown, where he must begin a fresh start at a new school. After struggling to make relationships with fellow peers, he befriends Winifred Owens, an equally unique and socially rebellious girl. They two become best friends, refusing to conform to societal norms. They share a distinctive trait in that they cherish individuality, and as the title states, anything but the ordinary. After Bernie’s mother dies, he falls into a state of depression that hinders his academic success and college aspirations. While Winifred continues to excel, she leaves Bernie and attends college across the country in California. Bernie’s despair in her absence drives him to travel to California in search of her. After eventually seeking her out, he realizes Winifred is no longer the girl he once fell in love with. In his efforts to win her back, his personal anguish and newly formed relationships eventually help him establish an identity of his own.
I enjoyed reading this book very much. It was a relatively quick read and easy to follow. It revealed realistic life circumstances and illustrated many believable events that take place in high school and college. It was relatable and realistic in its descriptions of school and young relationships. Hobbs tells a love story that becomes inspiring, yet heart aching. From a teachers point of view, I feel that middle school and high school students would enjoy this piece because it addresses important issues that many students often deal with, such as young love, family heartache, college endeavors and future expectations. While teenagers may struggle to deal with personal or academic issues, the books serves as proof that hope remains in troubled times. This book promotes optimism though change and reveals the importance of relationships and maturity.
I enjoyed reading this book very much. It was a relatively quick read and easy to follow. It revealed realistic life circumstances and illustrated many believable events that take place in high school and college. It was relatable and realistic in its descriptions of school and young relationships. Hobbs tells a love story that becomes inspiring, yet heart aching. From a teachers point of view, I feel that middle school and high school students would enjoy this piece because it addresses important issues that many students often deal with, such as young love, family heartache, college endeavors and future expectations. While teenagers may struggle to deal with personal or academic issues, the books serves as proof that hope remains in troubled times. This book promotes optimism though change and reveals the importance of relationships and maturity.
November 13, 2012
Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com
Winifred and Bernie have been best friends, and yes, in love, since middle school. Both were a little different and found fitting in difficult. Their friendship began with Winifred's creation of the Green Hat Club, and then it blossomed.
High school brought an even closer relationship. Winifred and Bernie were excellent students and hoped to place first and second in their graduating class. They studied together, lunched together, and basically spent every waking moment together. Romance became part of the friendship when they shared a first kiss, then a second, a third, etc. Although the physical side of their relationship advanced, both agreed that they would wait until marriage for the final act.
During senior year the hunt for colleges began. They agreed to find a place that would suit them both. Bernie's father worked in a tire shop which made money an obstacle. Winifred searched for a school that would recognize Bernie's academic achievement with a scholarship. All was going as planned until Bernie's mother returned one day from the doctor's with the news that she had ovarian cancer. She was gone in just a few months.
Life for Bernie and Winifred began to change. Winifred set off for California, and Bernie stayed in New Jersey. Headed in different directions for the first time, could their love and friendship remain strong?
ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY is the story of whether or not relationships can endure when faced with individual growth and change. Valerie Hobbs presents Winifred and Bernie in her simple, straight-forward prose. They are regular people living regular lives, but as the title suggests - "anything but ordinary." Readers hear the story from both perspectives and will come to know and care for both Winifred and Bernie.
Winifred and Bernie have been best friends, and yes, in love, since middle school. Both were a little different and found fitting in difficult. Their friendship began with Winifred's creation of the Green Hat Club, and then it blossomed.
High school brought an even closer relationship. Winifred and Bernie were excellent students and hoped to place first and second in their graduating class. They studied together, lunched together, and basically spent every waking moment together. Romance became part of the friendship when they shared a first kiss, then a second, a third, etc. Although the physical side of their relationship advanced, both agreed that they would wait until marriage for the final act.
During senior year the hunt for colleges began. They agreed to find a place that would suit them both. Bernie's father worked in a tire shop which made money an obstacle. Winifred searched for a school that would recognize Bernie's academic achievement with a scholarship. All was going as planned until Bernie's mother returned one day from the doctor's with the news that she had ovarian cancer. She was gone in just a few months.
Life for Bernie and Winifred began to change. Winifred set off for California, and Bernie stayed in New Jersey. Headed in different directions for the first time, could their love and friendship remain strong?
ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY is the story of whether or not relationships can endure when faced with individual growth and change. Valerie Hobbs presents Winifred and Bernie in her simple, straight-forward prose. They are regular people living regular lives, but as the title suggests - "anything but ordinary." Readers hear the story from both perspectives and will come to know and care for both Winifred and Bernie.
March 23, 2008
Winifred and Bernie have always been outsiders. From the moment they met in eighth grade, they have been weirdos, individuals, and in love with each other. They have vowed to each other that they will never be the most dreadful thing of all--ordinary--and that they will stick together through college and beyond.
But then Bernie's mother dies, and Bernie falls behind. His grades drop, he doesn't apply to college, and when Winifred goes off to University of California at Santa Barbara, for the first time since eighth grade, they leave each oher behind.
College isn't everything Winifred hoped for, but fortunately, she has three savvy, popular roommates to show her the ropes, remake her in their image, and rename her Wini. By the time Bernie has caught up with her, she's become, well, ordinary.
Bernie and Wini need to find themselves before they can rediscover each other.
This book reads like a fairy tale, the kind where you know love will come through in the end, but that doesn't make it predictable. Somewhere in the middle you start to be afraid that maybe this fairy tale won't have a happy ending after all. And somewhere in the middle of the story, the stereotyped characters start becoming real people. The potential cliches never come together--instead, they become real stories of real people, trying to make their way.
This isn't always an easy read--watching Wini and Bernie both self-destruct in their own ways is difficult and sometimes painful. But it's very honest, and it feels real and true, and sometimes, that's the best thing of all.
But then Bernie's mother dies, and Bernie falls behind. His grades drop, he doesn't apply to college, and when Winifred goes off to University of California at Santa Barbara, for the first time since eighth grade, they leave each oher behind.
College isn't everything Winifred hoped for, but fortunately, she has three savvy, popular roommates to show her the ropes, remake her in their image, and rename her Wini. By the time Bernie has caught up with her, she's become, well, ordinary.
Bernie and Wini need to find themselves before they can rediscover each other.
This book reads like a fairy tale, the kind where you know love will come through in the end, but that doesn't make it predictable. Somewhere in the middle you start to be afraid that maybe this fairy tale won't have a happy ending after all. And somewhere in the middle of the story, the stereotyped characters start becoming real people. The potential cliches never come together--instead, they become real stories of real people, trying to make their way.
This isn't always an easy read--watching Wini and Bernie both self-destruct in their own ways is difficult and sometimes painful. But it's very honest, and it feels real and true, and sometimes, that's the best thing of all.
January 27, 2011
This better be the only rotten apple in my book crop.
The method in which I select some of things I read hasn’t failed me until today. Amazon likes to suggest books for me, based on other books I have viewed. In turn, I will read a summary of them, check if they are available in a library within my county, and then order them for my crop. I understand why Amazon suggested this for me (It’s tags are YA Literature, Romance…), but I wish it had a quality filter.
Summary:
Love story about unique guy and girl, Bernie and Winifred. Then, Bernie’s mom dies and he turns into a total recluse. Bernie and Winifred are both brilliant, but the Bernie doesn’t want to go to college anymore. Bernie doesn’t want to do anything anymore. Winifred gets fed-up and decides to go to college across the country, where she becomes a tricked-out, idiotic, Barbie clone. Bernie drives across country to reunite with her, but is horrified to find the clone that has replaced his girlfriend. He bums around the city for the year (His father is under the ruse that he is auditing courses at the university), and falls for the Winifred’s T.A. The ending is proportional to the given plot, but lame nonetheless.
Usually, I try to find the good in books, but this one was straight-up awful. There was so much room for plot expansion (The guy’s road trip across country is summed-up in one paragraph…what?) and the characters felt so unrelated-able. We all have hardships in life, but Winnie and Guy were shallow, in depth (not in the actuality of the story). Very happy that I got this off my reading list.
The method in which I select some of things I read hasn’t failed me until today. Amazon likes to suggest books for me, based on other books I have viewed. In turn, I will read a summary of them, check if they are available in a library within my county, and then order them for my crop. I understand why Amazon suggested this for me (It’s tags are YA Literature, Romance…), but I wish it had a quality filter.
Summary:
Love story about unique guy and girl, Bernie and Winifred. Then, Bernie’s mom dies and he turns into a total recluse. Bernie and Winifred are both brilliant, but the Bernie doesn’t want to go to college anymore. Bernie doesn’t want to do anything anymore. Winifred gets fed-up and decides to go to college across the country, where she becomes a tricked-out, idiotic, Barbie clone. Bernie drives across country to reunite with her, but is horrified to find the clone that has replaced his girlfriend. He bums around the city for the year (His father is under the ruse that he is auditing courses at the university), and falls for the Winifred’s T.A. The ending is proportional to the given plot, but lame nonetheless.
Usually, I try to find the good in books, but this one was straight-up awful. There was so much room for plot expansion (The guy’s road trip across country is summed-up in one paragraph…what?) and the characters felt so unrelated-able. We all have hardships in life, but Winnie and Guy were shallow, in depth (not in the actuality of the story). Very happy that I got this off my reading list.
November 24, 2014
Summary- Anything But Ordinary by Valerie Hobbs, is about two people’s life that are anything but ordinary. The two people are both shy, intelligent, and not so normal. The way the narrator tells this story follows both Winfred and Bernie's story. It shows Winifreds adventures in some chapters and Bernies in others. It goes back and forth from Bernie to Winfred in almost every other chapter. Winfred was very unpopular she had no friends just like Bernie. Bernie made up the courage to ask to be in one of her club ideas that her teacher said was a bad idea. Ever since they were in 8th grade they did everything together. When Bernie was seventeen his mother died and a short while after that year Winfred decides to go off to college. Bernie is already depressed without his mother and now the love of his life is leaving for college. What is he going to do? Read the rest of this book to find out. (If you are to read this DO NOT read the book jacket it gives away way too much information and will spoil everything.)
Opinion/Rating- I would rate Anything But Ordinary by Valerie Hobbs a 4 out of 5 stars because it has some great detail, adventure, and the way the story is told makes it even more interesting, you can see both sides of the story. This story is not only romantic but an adventure in many ways. This book is for more mature teens because there are some intimate situations that would make some people uncomfortable. I would definitely recommend this book to more people.
June 16, 2009
Courtesy of B.L.T Reviews: booksandliteratureforteen.blogspot.com
Winifred and Bernie are best friends, and most of all they like to be different. When the kids at school would wear Nike shoes, they'd wear Converse. When the latest fad was designer clothes, they would wear "recycled" t-shirts and jeans from the second hand store.
They were different.....until Wini left for college, then everything began to change. Fearing Wini would become like everyone else, Bernie decides to go after her.
But by the time Bernie shows up at UOC, it's too late, Wini changed so much that Bernie isn’t sure he loves her anymore.
In the end, they both discover that being different is what they should be.
The Review
This book was terrible. It started out okay, but by the time it got to UOC, it mentioned all kinds of disgusting dorm room secrets. Sure Hobbs did give a point: you shouldn't be like everybody else just because you don't fit in; but by the time it got to that part, Wini and Bernie had made all kinds of bad decisions (mostly Wini).
My recommendation to you is skip the book and take the advice from above..... and don't go to the University of California.
REVIEW BY MORGAN @ B.L.T
Winifred and Bernie are best friends, and most of all they like to be different. When the kids at school would wear Nike shoes, they'd wear Converse. When the latest fad was designer clothes, they would wear "recycled" t-shirts and jeans from the second hand store.
They were different.....until Wini left for college, then everything began to change. Fearing Wini would become like everyone else, Bernie decides to go after her.
But by the time Bernie shows up at UOC, it's too late, Wini changed so much that Bernie isn’t sure he loves her anymore.
In the end, they both discover that being different is what they should be.
The Review
This book was terrible. It started out okay, but by the time it got to UOC, it mentioned all kinds of disgusting dorm room secrets. Sure Hobbs did give a point: you shouldn't be like everybody else just because you don't fit in; but by the time it got to that part, Wini and Bernie had made all kinds of bad decisions (mostly Wini).
My recommendation to you is skip the book and take the advice from above..... and don't go to the University of California.
REVIEW BY MORGAN @ B.L.T
August 23, 2014
Bernie Federman moves to Pittstown when he is thirteen. New to the school, he is a back-row kid wedged between the gangsters and the makeup girls. He meets Winifred, who is a front row girl with a pop-up arm - no matter what the question. Winifred is smart and about as popular as cafeteria meatloaf.
After starting numerous school clubs and having no one join them, Winifred starts the Green Hat Club. Teased and beaten down, Winifred stops raising her hand but refuses to give up her olive green hat with a bright red pom-pom on top. Bernie sympathizes, finds the ugliest green hat he can and joins her club.
Opposites in almost every way imaginable, they fall in love. Through middle school and high school they make plans for their future together when they'll go away to college and get out of Pittstown.
The year of their graduation Bernie faces a tragedy that throws him off course and Winifred goes to college alone. Taken up by her savvy roommates who remake her, Winifred becomes Wini and for the first time in her life begins to fit in. Realizing he is losing her, Bernie travels across country to find her.
Winifred and Bernie's unusual love story is touching, funny, and heartbreaking. Will Bernie reach his potential and will Winifred trade his love for being normal?
After starting numerous school clubs and having no one join them, Winifred starts the Green Hat Club. Teased and beaten down, Winifred stops raising her hand but refuses to give up her olive green hat with a bright red pom-pom on top. Bernie sympathizes, finds the ugliest green hat he can and joins her club.
Opposites in almost every way imaginable, they fall in love. Through middle school and high school they make plans for their future together when they'll go away to college and get out of Pittstown.
The year of their graduation Bernie faces a tragedy that throws him off course and Winifred goes to college alone. Taken up by her savvy roommates who remake her, Winifred becomes Wini and for the first time in her life begins to fit in. Realizing he is losing her, Bernie travels across country to find her.
Winifred and Bernie's unusual love story is touching, funny, and heartbreaking. Will Bernie reach his potential and will Winifred trade his love for being normal?
September 26, 2011
This book was about how a Bernie and Winifred seem to have been bounded together by fate because of how different they were from everyone else. Only they respected what the each had and everyone else was ordinary. They planned their life out together since high school but everything changed when Bernie's mother died. He began to abandon his own unique trait of being different and became normal. His dream he once shared with Winifred was lost, but Winifred still continued it. They began to separate from each other more when Winifred left for college. Is this going to be the life they both anticipated or are they going to bring it back?
This book was told in 2 perspectives, Bernie's and Winifred's. This allowed me to get into each of their minds more easier and think what they thought. They both felt the same for each other buy could never really say it to each other as they separated more. The awkwardness between them grew and so did they separate more. Being different from everyone was difficult for both Winnie and Bernie, since pressure caused them to become normal. One can't be different forever because not many other are.
This book was told in 2 perspectives, Bernie's and Winifred's. This allowed me to get into each of their minds more easier and think what they thought. They both felt the same for each other buy could never really say it to each other as they separated more. The awkwardness between them grew and so did they separate more. Being different from everyone was difficult for both Winnie and Bernie, since pressure caused them to become normal. One can't be different forever because not many other are.
June 14, 2010
In the book Anything But Ordinary, Winifred is a strange girl who doesn't belong anywhere and her ideas have been rejected by everyone in school. But then a boy name Bernie pops into the picture and Winifred finally feels like there's somewhere she belongs. After that day they've met, they've grown up close together. One day a tragic event happens to Bernie, and all the plans he had with Winifred were all ruined and gone to waste, because he decided to quit college. But then Winifred decides to go to college as far away as possible, so then what happens? Bernie drives all the way to Winifred's college, but isn't enrolled. What does he do with his life?
This book leaves you with questions in every chapter, but the answers are so intriguing and you won't stop until you read the rest of the book. I would recommend this to everyone who likes to read about life stories, and close relationships. It's a very touching book with lots of mixed emotions. It might even make you cry if you can relate to the sad moments of this story.
This book leaves you with questions in every chapter, but the answers are so intriguing and you won't stop until you read the rest of the book. I would recommend this to everyone who likes to read about life stories, and close relationships. It's a very touching book with lots of mixed emotions. It might even make you cry if you can relate to the sad moments of this story.
July 3, 2012
When thirteen-year-old Bernie moves to a new town and meets the school outcast Winifred, he has no idea how his life is going to change. Both students are incredibly smart, rocketing to the top of their class, and unique, vowing to never be ordinary. They're together for four years, until something makes Bernie decide to not attend college, while Winifred moves to the other side of the country. The story is told in alternating chapters so you learn how the characters really feel, despite their difference. When Bernie finally takes a chance and follows Winifred, he finds that school has turned her into "Wini," and he's not sure how he feels about her anymore. The ending is a little hokey, but the ups and downs of the relationship are realistic and honest.
February 4, 2008
Outsiders Winifred and Bernie have been best friends since 8th grade. They expect to remain best friends forever, to graduate high school and go to college. When Bernie's mom dies he goes into a funk and decides not to go to college. But after Winifred has left for college in California, he misses her so much that he drives cross country in his beat up truck. The girl he finds isn't the one he knew. She has come under the influence of her flighty roommates and changed her hair color, wardrobe and even started to fail her courses. Bernie meanwhile falls for the grad student instructor of Wini's (she changed her name even) literature class. A fun offbeat love story.
May 5, 2009
A story of first love and high school sweethearts. Bernie and Winifred became friends in eighth grade, defining themselves by being anything but ordinary. Senior year, after planning their lives around each other, Bernie's world comes crashing down and their plans start to fall apart, especially when Winifred goes to college across the country. I liked the simple, explanatory writing, but felt the story was a bit too preachy at times--California girls are bimbos! or if they're not bimbos, they're cool hippies! Nanoscience is better than communications as a major! The ending felt abrupt.
June 8, 2007
Don't know if I'll like it yet, but the premise looks good. Can't.... stop.... reading.... Y...A...books. :b
didn't like this one as much as I had hoped. basically, it wasn't deep enough or something. i couldn't sink my teeth into the way i could with other books about "outcast" kids. Wait, isn't that all of YA lit? At any rate, I had hoped for Stoner and Spaz level, or even Getting the Girl by Zusak, but it didn't deliver. It read like Naylor's Alice books, only a tad more sophisticated.
Nobody has a clue what I'm talking about, huh?
didn't like this one as much as I had hoped. basically, it wasn't deep enough or something. i couldn't sink my teeth into the way i could with other books about "outcast" kids. Wait, isn't that all of YA lit? At any rate, I had hoped for Stoner and Spaz level, or even Getting the Girl by Zusak, but it didn't deliver. It read like Naylor's Alice books, only a tad more sophisticated.
Nobody has a clue what I'm talking about, huh?
August 4, 2007
Our narrator tells the story of two young lovers, apart for the first time since middle school, forced to establish their own identities. When their worlds collide, how will they reconcile? Do they still need one another to be complete? This story of first love and coming-of-age is Van Draanen’s Flipped for an older teen crowd, filled with tenderness and tension, with some smiles thrown in as well. Give this to the teen reader who either hates or loves romance novels, or to one who has had a best friend/love throughout adolescence and is faced with an impending separation.
August 18, 2009
A simple but heartfelt love story about high school sweethearts dealing with their first year of college and the change and challenge it inevitably brings to their relationship. This book had a personal connection for me because the college setting is UC Santa Barbara, which is where I went to college, so I was familiar with every campus location that the author (who herself teaches at UCSB) put in the book. This is one I'd recommend for older teens who like a little relationship drama in their books, especially teens who are getting ready for college themselves.
May 17, 2010
what a cute story about first love. i mean, a lot of it is pretty unrealistic, and i was a little disappointed with the writing style, but it was a nice, quick read and conveniently was not just one of their sides. for a while, i was pretty convinced there would not be a happy ending, and i'm not sure if that's what i wanted. bernie and winifred clearly had changed, and i hope there would be a lot of reconstructing in their relationship.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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November 4, 2011I think this book is alright. It's simply about a boy and girl who fell in love in high school and separate when they go to college. They both change a bit, and become what the other dislikes in people. So far, I don't think this book is very original or written well, but I don't think it's a bad book either. Some parts of the book caught my attention, but for the most part, I just feel like I've heard the same story too many times to be interested.
September 22, 2012
Winifred Owens, and Bernie Federman are not the most, shall I say, cool, or popular kids in their school. They met in middle school when Bernie's family moved to New Jersey. They were unique, and did not want to even fit in with the crowd. But everything changed in high school. Bernie's mother died of cancer, and they both had some big chalenges coming their way. Although they were across the country at one point, their friendship stayed strong.
May 7, 2013
This book was one of the most heart touching books I've ever read. The story takes place between two teens, Winifred, an adventurous open individual, and Bernie, the quiet guy of the story. This is the most realistic romance story I've read. You just watch Bernie and Winifred's relationship blossom into love, and as it tears apart as they try to figure out their own identities. This touching love story of friendship, self esteem, and self discovery will make you drawn deeper with each page.
December 12, 2008
The 3rd person POV in a YA novel is unique and adds a nice touch. It avoids being really sappy that way, and it's cute. Definitely not amazing literature, but something to recommend to high schoolers.
Read
July 30, 2011loved the ending...i've read so many young adult books in my short life that i usually feel like the endings were rushed and not thought through which makes me angry. but this one just fit because it was anything but ordinary...
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