Book Description

lder teens and adult readers can't get enough of Gossip Girl, the anonymous narrator who made her catty debut in the bestselling Gossip Girl and titillated readers in the juicy sequel, You Know You Love Me. Now in All I Want Is Everything, readers will love her even more as Gossip Girl dishes up dose after hefty dose of dirt on all her friends-New York's wealthiest private school teens. Sharp wit, intriguing characters, and high-stakes melodrama drive the action of this wildly popular new series.

From Publishers Weekly

At a New York City jet-set private school populated by hard-drinking, bulimic, love-starved poor little rich kids, a clique of horrible people behave badly to one another. An omniscient narrator sees inside the shallow hearts of popular Blair Waldorf, her stoned hottie of a boyfriend, Nate, and her former best friend Serena van der Woodsen, just expelled from boarding school and "gifted with the kind of coolness that you can't acquire by buying the right handbag or the right pair of jeans. She was the girl every boy wants and every girl wants to be." Everyone wears a lot of designer clothes and drinks a lot of expensive booze. Serena flirts with Nate and can't understand why Blair is upset with her; Blair throws a big party and doesn't invite Serena; Serena meets a cute but unpopular guy; and a few less socially blessed characters wonder about the lives of those who "have everything anyone could possibly wish for and who take it all completely for granted." Intercut with these exploits are excerpts from www.gossipgirl.net (the actual site launches in February), where "gossip girl" dishes the dirt on the various characters without ever revealing her own identity amongst them. Though anyone hoping for character depth or emotional truth should look elsewhere, readers who have always wished Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz would write about teenagers are in for a superficial, nasty, guilty pleasure. The book has the effect of gossip itself once you enter it's hard to extract yourself; teens will devour this whole. The open-ended conclusion promises a follow-up. Ages 15-up.

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up-Is Gossip Girl one of New York City's privileged teens with easy access to endless money, alcohol, and drugs? The answer remains a well-kept secret, but her Web page that opens each chapter (and that readers can visit) tells all about the in-crowd. Catty, backbiting, and exaggerated, GG's observations are also candid. The term begins at Manhattan's elite Spenford School for girls and St. Albans for boys. Girls talk about boys, sex, clothes, and friends while boys talk about girls, sex, and parties. Serena is the center of controversy, surrounded by rumors that range from her being a sex fiend to a drug addict. Bulimic Blair, her former best friend, loves Nate, but discovers that he's hooked up with Serena. Ninth-grade Jenny idolizes Serena while her brother Dan has a consuming crush on her. Vignettes of school, social events, shopping, and Web-page entries make this fast, easy reading that's both funny and sad. Truth takes a backseat to rumor, and curiosity is satisfied by gossip, not questions and answers. Von Ziegesar's approach is fresh, although mean and petty comments dominate these teens' world. Characters are somewhat stereotypical: teen sex goddess; handsome, fickle boyfriend; unaffected young teen; and goody-goody brother. Sex seems easy, no one worries about protection or consequences, the alcohol flows like water, and the language is raw. Everything is at one's fingertips in Gossip Girl's world, and even cheap talk and the growing pains of high school don't change that. Fluffy reading, this is likely to have high appeal for older teens.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Gail Richmond, San Diego Unified Schools, CA

From Booklist

Gr. 10-12. "Ever wondered what the lives of the chosen are really like? Well, I'm going to tell you because I'm one of them." Gossip Girl is the anonymous narrator of this campy, scandal-hungry glimpse into the lives of privileged teens in Manhattan's Upper East Side. In between pages made to resemble Gossip Girl's Web site, with updated gossip about the characters, the novel follows its central characters through a few months of private school, drinking, shopping, pot-smoking, and sex (described in relatively non-explicit scenes). When "tall, eerily blond" Serena is kicked out of boarding school, she encounters rumors, ostracism, and romance with a boy from the other side of the tracks (the Upper West Side) as she tries to find her place again. The characters and their interactions have the depth (and parental guidance rating) of a raunchy teen movie, with the usual stereotypes, cat fights, and designer labels. And that's just why the book may attract eager readers. A sequel is expected in the fall.

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Gillian Engberg

Book Dimension

length: (cm)17.1 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)10.6