"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Albert Einstein

09 December 2011

Of All the Stupid Things



Diaz, Alexandra. Of All the Stupid Things. New York: Egmont, 2010.

Tara, Pinkie, and Whitney have been friends forever. There couldn't be three more different people, but somehow they manage to make it work.  Then a rumor and an argument spiral out of control, and the three friends are separated, each trying to come to terms with the truth.  Tara is dealing with an absent father, a cheating boyfriend, and possibly a new girlfriend; Pinkie is still grieving her mother's death, and Whitney doesn't know what to do with herself when she discovers she is not the center of everyone's universe.

Although I will admit that both Pinkie and Whitney managed to get on my nerves throughout this story, I can understand how people who seem to be from different universes can become friends, so I won't begrudge Tara her friends. I was glad both that they weren't perfect and that they manged to work out their differences by the end of the story.  And I was especially glad for Tara's mom's reaction to Tara when she told her she was dating a girl.  Tara was able to talk to her mom honestly about how she felt about her girlfriend and how confused she felt that she had left a boyfriend for a girlfriend.  Her mom said, "So maybe you're someone who falls in love with a person, not a gender" (201).  A wise friend of mine gave me similar advice when I was struggling through coming out; she suggested that I not worry about the gender of the person I love, that labels don't really matter that much.  And I've passed that very piece of advice along to others as well; there's something to be said for being just a person and not a label.


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