{"product_id":"fly-on-the-wall-isbn-9780385732826","title":"Fly on the Wall","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"I think this might be the best YA novel . . . I've ever read.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003eJohn Green\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eFrom E. Lockhart, author of \u003ci\u003eWe Were Liars\u003c\/i\u003e—the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling phenomenon—and the uproarious and heartwarming Ruby Oliver books, comes a fast-paced and hysterically funny novel that answers the question: What would it be like to be a fly on the wall in the boy's locker room?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003eAt the Manhattan School for Art and Music, where everyone is “different” and everyone is “special,” Gretchen Yee feels ordinary. She’s the kind of girl who sits alone at lunch, drawing pictures of Spider-Man, so she won’t have to talk to anyone; who has a crush on Titus but won’t do anything about it; who has no one to hang out with when her best (and only real) friend Katya is busy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOne day, Gretchen wishes that she could be a fly on the wall in the boys’ locker room–just to learn more about guys. What are they really like? What do they really talk about? Are they really cretins most of the time?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFly on the Wall\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of how that wish comes true.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cu\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003efly on the wall\u003c\/i\u003e:\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “I think this might be the best YA novel…I’ve ever read. It’s hilarious, and it’s so very smart. I mean, I’m serious…It’s really amazing.”—John Green, author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eThe Fault in Our Stars\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A super-smart, super-sweet, and super-fantastic read.”—Sarah Mlynowski, author of \u003ci\u003eDon’t Even Think About It\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “With an appropriate nod and wink to Kafka, this unexpectedly sharp comedy charts its own metamorphosis.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Horn Book Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Fast-paced, hysterically funny, and a pleasure to read.”—\u003cb\u003eTeenreads.com \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Fine fun for fans of both Kafka and Spider-Man.”—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIRA Young Adult Book Choice\u003cp\u003eE. Lockhart is the author of the highly acclaimed\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eWe Were Liars \u003c\/i\u003eand the Ruby Oliver quartet (\u003ci\u003eThe\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eBoyfriend List, The Boy Book, The Treasure Map of Boys,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eReal Live Boyfriends\u003c\/i\u003e), as well as \u003ci\u003eFly\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eon the Wall, Dramarama,\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eHow to Be Bad\u003c\/i\u003e (the last with Sarah Mlynowski and Lauren Myracle). Her novel \u003ci\u003eThe Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks\u003c\/i\u003e was a Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book, a finalist for the National Book Award, and winner of a Cybils Award for Best Young Adult Novel. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.\u003c\/p\u003eI am eating alone in the lunchroom.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgain.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEver since Katya started smoking cigarettes, she's hanging out back by the garbage cans, lighting up with the Art Rats. She bags her lunch, so she takes it out there and eats potato chips in a haze of nicotine.\u003cbr\u003eI hate smoking, and the Art Rats make me nervous. So here I am: in my favorite corner of the lunchroom, sitting on the floor with my back against the wall. I'm eating fries off a tray and drawing my own stuff--not anything for class.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eQuadriceps. Quadriceps.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKnee.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCalf muscle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDull point; must sharpen pencil.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHell! Pencil dust in fries.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhatever. They still taste okay.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCalf muscle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnkle.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFoot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKA-POW! Spider-Man smacks Doctor Octopus off the edge of the building with a swift kick to the jaw. Ock's face contorts as he falls backward, his metal tentacles flailing with hysterical fear. He has an eighty-story fall beneath him, and--\u003cbr\u003eSpidey has a great physique. Built, but not too built. Even if I did draw him myself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI think I made his butt too small.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDo-over.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI wish I had my pink eraser, I don't like this white one.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eButt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eButt.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConnecting to: leg . . . and . . . quadriceps.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere. A finished Spidey outline. I have to add the suit. And some shadowing. And the details of the building. Then fill in the rest of Doc Ock as he hurtles off the edge.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMmmm. French fries.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHell again! Ketchup on Spidey.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLick it off.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCammie Holmes is staring at me like I'm some lower form of life.\u003cbr\u003e\"What are you looking at?\" I mutter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Nothing.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Then. Stop. Staring,\" I say, sharpening my pencil again, though it doesn't need it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis Cammie is all biscuits. She's stacked like a character in a comic book. Cantaloupes are strapped to her chest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHer only redeeming quality.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Why are you licking your Superman drawing?\" Cammie tips her nose up. \"That's so kinky. I mean, I've heard of licking a centerfold, but licking Superman?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Spider.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"What?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Spider-Man.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Whatever. Get a life, Gretchen.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe's gone. From across the lunchroom comes her nasal voice: \"Taffy, get this: I just caught Gretchen Yee giving oral to some Superman drawing she made.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpider. Spider. Spider-Man.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"She would.\" Taffy Johnson. Stupid tinkly laugh.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSuperman is a big meathead. I'd never draw Superman. Much less give him oral.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI haven't given anybody oral, anyway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI hate those girls.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTaffy is doing splits in the middle of the lunchroom floor, which is just gross. Who wants to see her crotch like that? Though of course everybody does, and even if they didn't, she wouldn't care because she's such a unique spirit or whatever.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI hate those girls, and I hate this place: the Manhattan High School for the Arts. Also known as Ma-Ha.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSupposedly, it's a magnet high school for students talented in drawing, painting, sculpture or photography. You have to submit a portfolio to get in, and when I did mine (which was all filled with inks of comic-book characters I taught myself to draw in junior high) and when I finally got my acceptance letter, my parents were really excited. But once you're here, it's nothing but an old, ugly New York public school building, with angry teachers and crap facilities like any other city public school--except I've got drawing class every day, painting once a week and art history twice. I'm in the drawing program.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSocially, Ma-Ha is like the terrible opposite of the schools you see on television, where everyone wants to be the same as everyone else. On TV, if you don't conform and wear what the popular kids are wearing, and talk like they talk, and act like they do--then you're a pariah.\u003cbr\u003eHere, everyone wants to be different.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeople have mohawks and dreadlocks and outrageous thrift-store clothes; no one would be caught dead in ordinary jeans and a T-shirt, because they're all so into expressing their individuality. A girl from the sculpture program wears a sari every day, even though her family's Scandinavian. There's that kid who's always got that Pink Panther doll sticking out of her jacket pocket; the boy who smokes using a cigarette holder like they did in forties movies; a girl who's shaved her head and pierced her cheeks; Taffy, who does Martha Graham-technique modern dance and wears her leotard and sweats all day; and Cammie, who squeezes herself into tight goth outfits and paints her lips vampire red.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey all fit in here, or take pride in not fitting in, if that makes any sense--and if you're an ordinary person you've got to do something at least, like dye your hair a strange color, because nothing is scorned so much as normalcy. Everyone's a budding genius of the art scene; everyone's on the verge of a breakthrough. If you're a regular-looking person with regular likes and dislikes and regular clothes,\u003cbr\u003eand you can draw so it looks like the art in a comic book,\u003cbr\u003ebut you can't \"express your interior life on the page,\" according to Kensington (my drawing teacher),\u003cbr\u003eand if you can't \"draw what you see, rather than imitate what's in that third-rate trash you like to read\" (Kensington again),\u003cbr\u003ethen you're nothing at Ma-Ha.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNothing. That's me.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGretchen Kaufman Yee. Ordinary girl.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTwo months ago I capitulated to nonconformity-conformity and had my hair bleached white and then dyed stop-sign red. It cost sixty dollars and it pissed off my mother, but it didn't work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI'm still ordinary.","brand":"Delacorte Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299913584869,"sku":"NP9780385732826","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780385732826.jpg?v=1767727496","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/fly-on-the-wall-isbn-9780385732826","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}