2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: Life is Funny by E. R. Frank

I chose E. R. Frank's Life is Funny as one of my 2012 TBR Pile Reading Challenge selections. If you're curious as to the rules of this little soiree, then click here...

Fortunately, this book is #40 on the Top 100 Banned/Challenged Books: 2000-2009, so that's another one I'm able to cross off that list. Yay!!!

Book Info:

ISBN #: 051488007999

Page Count: 263

Copyright: 2000

Publisher: DK Inc

Book Summary:

(Taken from back cover)

"Because life is funny," Gingerbread tells Keisha when she asks why he laughs so much. The thing is, until she falls in love with him, Keisha doesn't see what's so funny - in her life or anyone else's in Brooklyn, New York.

There is Eric, fiercely protective of his little brother, Mickey. To the rest of the world, he is simply fierce. To Linnette, whose parents have taken him in as a foster child, he's an intruder in her life - until a look through a keyhole reveals both Eric's past and his future.

Then there are Grace and Sam, whose dreams come true because they were lucky enough to be born beautiful. Sonia, who struggles to live the life of a good Muslim girl in a foreign America. And Gingerbread and Keisha, who fall in love despite themselves.

Life is Funny strips away the everyday defenses of one group of teenagers living today, right now - and show their unbearably real lives.

Mandy's Review:

This makes the second novel I've read that was written by E. R. Frank and I must say that I have yet to be disappointed.

She has a way of writing about the lives of teenagers that make them seem as real as the people you see every day on the streets. Her books have invoked emotions of anger, sympathy, sadness and laughter ...

Life is Funny isn't like most novels. It doesn't really have a beginning. It doesn't prepare you for a climactic event that slowly fades into an ending. This novel plops you right in the middle of several teenagers' lives. You get to see who they really are. Where they've been. What they have to deal with every day ... and no matter how perfect their life seems from the outside, they have to deal with extreme issues at home.

I was engaged in their story from the beginning. I did not stop reading until the book was finished ... and I still wanted more. It makes you realize that everybody is dealing with something and the way they act may be them acting out because they cannot act out at home.

I would recommend this novel to young adults on up. Yes, there is some language, but I think the language helps to make it realistic ... Some young adults need an awakening into what others have to go through!!!