A compelling drama about a girl seems to have it all - strong grades, good friends, and the perfect boyfriend - until she finds herself at the center of a sexting scandal, from an author praised for tackling tough issues, Jennifer Brown.
Jennifer Brown writes and lives in the Kansas City, Missouri, area with her husband and three children. She is the author of Perfect Escape; Bitter End, which received two starred reviews and was named an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults title; and Hate List, which received three starred reviews and was selected as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, a VOYA Perfect Ten, and a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year.
* "Thousand Words is a powerful, timely, and compulsively readable story...This is an excellent choice for book discussions and a must-purchase for all libraries." - VOYA, starred reviewBrown brings her characteristic raw honesty to this wrenching story....Sensitive and genuine. - Publishers Weekly
Gr 9-11-When 10th-grader Ashleigh feels pressured by her friends into texting a full-frontal nude photo of herself to her college-freshman boyfriend, she believes that the picture is for his eyes only. But Kaleb distributes it to his contact list in revenge for her friends' pranks after the two break up. Ashleigh receives a trickle of mocking messages at first, but when the distribution expands and is posted on a website, an outraged community demands retribution. She is sentenced to community service, and Kaleb is faced with the possibility of being charged as a sex offender. Ashleigh's violation is keenly and sensitively rendered. Text messages, which get crueler with time, headline chapters. Chapters smoothly alternate between flashbacks revealing the chain of events and Ashleigh's time in community service. How and why she is sentenced are slowly revealed, adding intrigue to the story. As the teen begins to fight back against her tormentors and regains trust in her friends, there is hope that her situation will improve. The far-reaching consequences of impulsivity and of texting are made clear, but not in a preachy, heavy-handed, or overly dramatic way. Teens will relate to Ashleigh's feelings of humiliation, even if they've never experienced them to the same degree.-Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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