Braddy Reads Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie

After reading a rather large stack of "real literature," I felt it was time to kick back and read some lighter stuff before diving back in. I found a couple of books based on friends' suggestions and powered through them. Sometimes it's nice to be able to get through a book in a single week... or even less (more on that later).

A friend recommended David Lubar's Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie after reading it through and noticing certain similarities between the main character and your humble blogger. I wondered if I should be offended. Then I started reading... and knew I should be.

I kid, I kid. I'll admit to being a bit uncomfortable with the comparison, but most of that has to do with my discomfort with teenagers (they scare the living $#@% out of me). And Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie has A LOT of teenagers in it.

The story's pretty predictable: Scott Hudson starts high school, dreads being unpopular, gets beat up and crushes on the unattainable girl, starts to make friends with people he feels he shouldn't be seen with, hates all his classes except one where he feels understood, etc. Even though I can't name a single other book that has a similar plot, I know I've read this type of story before... It's kind of forgettable.

Still, I'd say Sleeping Freshmen is well worth reading, despite the unimaginative plot. The central message - learning to respect yourself without regards for what others think of you - is pretty important for teenagers to hear, so I can give the author a bye on that. The real draw to the book, though, is Scott's personal writing.

Throughout the book, the author inserts several clips from Scott's notebook - letters he writes to his unborn brother, lists of survival tips for high schoolers, opinions and editorials... The jokes are often immature and unsophisticated, but that doesn't stop them from being genuinely funny.

One caveat, though - Scott discovers Tom Swifties in the first chapter or two, and he employs them throughout the book. I've read enough of Boys' Life magazine back when I was in Scouts to know that Tom Swifties just AREN'T funny. Bleagh.

I've been a little harder on the book than I meant to. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie isn't going to win any awards, but it doesn't have to. The book is funny, full of likeable characters, and just original enough to make it worthwhile.