By the time I graduated high school, I had gained notoriety as the school nonconformist, so much so that my graduation year the faculty decided to replace the Valedictorian with the Most Representative Student. As a result, a popular and obedient girl whose average came out a fraction of a percentage point lower than mine gave the valedictory address while I sat silently in the bleachers with the rest of my classmates. I have no doubt that my regular protests and editorials in the school newspaper about the oppressive policies of the administration had much to do with my not giving this final speech.
Because of my own history, I took notice of J.J. Johnson’s new young adult novel This Girl Is Different, published by Atlanta-based Peachtree Publishers. When Eve Morningdew, who has been homeschooled all her life by her hippie mother, decides to attend a regular high school for her senior year, chaos ensues. Eve cannot understand why the student bathrooms are filthy, ordinary cellphones are banned while more expensive smartphones are permitted, and the girls’ gym teacher is allowed to berate students about their weight. Along with her new boyfriend and her boyfriend’s cousin, Eve starts a blog to advocate for justice but also to avenge tyrants and bullies. Her plan to bring democracy to the school leads to anarchy, a blog designed to chastise bullies soon becomes an instrument of bullying, and she ends up as the school pariah.
Johnson’s novel is unusual in contemporary YA fiction for its exploration of power relationships across the board. Eve’s mother works at Wal-Mart, and her low wages mean that Eve does not have the typical middle class accouterments. Lacking these consumer objects exposes her to discriminatory treatment, the cellphone ban being the most obvious example. Weight, too, is a class issue, and those who are overweight (predominantly of lower economic status) face daily humiliation. The protagonist is an outsider whose lack of knowledge of the rules and fresh perspectives upon them allow her to be an agent of change but also make her vulnerable to the forces of counterrevolution and/or anarchy. For the most part, the adults behave even more childishly than the kids, and Eve eventually learns to rein in her self-righteousness and listen to others in the process of becoming a more effective advocate for her beliefs.
My younger self would have learned much from reading This Girl Is Different, and today’s high school activists will find this story…different—and essential. An especially nice touch is a quote from a noted political activist that begins each chapter and turns out to be relevant to the events of that chapter.
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