OCD, the Dude, and Me

January 21, 2013
Senior year is starting, but Danielle Levine isn’t looking forward to it. Even though everyone at her school has a learning disability, it’s still divided into cool kids and outcasts, and Danielle—with her flaming red hair, nonwaiflike physique, OCD, and penchant for hats—is in the second camp. Things get worse when she’s forced to see the school psychologist and attend a social skills class. Vaughn structures her debut as a combination of Danielle’s diary entries, e-mails, and the essays (usually autobiographical) she writes for English class. These give readers a rich stream of information about Danielle’s attempt to face both the horrors of high school and the actual horror she’s endured. Information about the latter comes out slowly, which works, since Danielle has organized her life around keeping it hidden. Vaughn skillfully shows how making an actual friend and being introduced to the model of The Big Lebowski’s Dude (and his ability to “abide”) contribute to Danielle’s upturn. Her problems don’t go away, but her perspective on them and ability to cope shifts and improves. Ages 14–up. Agent: Amy Burkhardt, Kimberley Cameron & Associates.

Starred review from February 15, 2013
There are good books, and there are great books, and then there are books with characters you'll never forget. Vaughn's debut about a high school senior whose struggle to fit in is compounded by the social quirks associated with her OCD is definitely one of those rare finds. Told through a brilliant collection of class assignments, journal entries, emails and "missives" to the school psychologist, Danielle Levine's story is laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreakingly honest. Hopelessly in love with the completely unattainable Jacob Kingston and plagued by body-image issues and insecurities about her position on the senior-class social ladder, Danielle lands herself in the school psychologist's office and, even worse, a social-skills class. But just as things look like they couldn't possibly get any worse, Danielle's life gradually takes a turn for the better. An oddball collection of new friends, including Daniel, who's not much taller than she is but has a "personality...well over six feet," her amazingly supportive Aunt Joyce and Justine, an 80-year-old British tour guide, teach Danielle that there is plenty worth loving, and forgiving, about herself. Reminiscent of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, Vaughn's work avoids stereotypical pitfalls and deftly tackles the sensitive issue of a teen's struggle with mental illness with humor and integrity. A must-read. (Fiction. 14 & up)

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Starred review from April 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-Readers will enjoy 17-year-old Danielle Levine's antics as she writes about her senior year in essays assigned by her English teacher. Ms. Harrison doesn't always appreciate the latitude Danielle takes with each assignment and is frank in her responses, making readers feel the curse of the red pen. Danielle goes to an alternative high school in California where she struggles with OCD, has no friends, has to attend social-skills class, and has to deal with her crush, Jacob, who sends her mixed signals throughout the book. The teen is surely down on herself and readers will wonder why. As the plot turns, this well-developed character eventually reveals what caused her to leave her old school. Readers will watch her grow and appreciate her insightfulness into a variety of situations and classmates. Reluctant readers will appreciate the style of writing, and novice writers will see how it is therapeutic for Danielle. Initially readers understand why no one likes her, but by the end of her transformation, her classmates see her differently, and teens will, too. It is apparent that Vaughn understands adolescents and what it is like to watch them develop as writers and work through a traumatic experience. With a touch of humor and sarcasm throughout, this one is sure to find an appreciative audience.-Karen Alexander, Lake Fenton High School, Linden, MI

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2013
Grades 7-11 Written as a series of high-school English essays, private journal entries, letters, and e-mails, Vaughn's debut novel introduces senior Danielle Levine. The format works particularly well given that Danielle, a loner, finds it easiest to communicate through writing. She also has OCD, often rearranging her collection of snow globes for comfort, and she attends a special school, where she pines after Jacob. Danielle's voice is fresh, funny, and insightful, and her self-aware comments feel spot-on: I felt myself move into myself, literally, as if I had been, for years, a cartoon drawn by a drunk, cross-eyed artist who couldn't keep me in the lines. As senior year passes, Danielle steps out of her comfort zone to attend the class trip to England, falls in and out of love with unsuspecting Jacob, and most transformative of all, makes a friend, gay Daniel, becoming his fruit fly (a fag hag of sorts) as they bond over The Big Lebowski. By novel's end, readers will have only the highest of hopes for Danielle's future.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2013
In Vaughn's debut novel, journal entries, e-mails, and essays written for school document Danielle's senior year, offering readers a protagonist with a wicked sense of humor and a barrel of insecurities. Danielle has OCD, no friends, and a hopeless crush on popular jock Jacob. On the plus side, she has a supportive family, a passion for literature, and an English teacher who gets her the help she needs. After reading Danielle's sarcastic, self-mocking essays, Ms. Harrison sends her to the school therapist, who sends her to a social skills class, where she makes friends with Daniel (she asks if she's his fag hag and he replies, "No...you are my first fruit fly!"); Daniel soon introduces her to the cult film The Big Lebowski and its credo of "takin' 'er easy." She also makes a new friend on the class trip to London when she and elderly tour guide Justine decide to be pen pals (a lovely intergenerational friendship that burdens the story just a bit but fits well with Danielle's obsession with Harold and Maude). Slowly, readers will pick up on hints Danielle drops about a traumatic event in her past she is no longer able to ignore; with everyone's help, she pulls through. A fantastic prom (she takes Daniel), a bonding road trip to Lebowski Fest, and an emotional graduation -- and all ends superbly, the feel-good conclusion swelling with such happiness that readers will forgive the novel for its overabundances. jennifer m. brabander

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2013
Journal entries, e-mails, and essays written for school document Danielle's senior year, offering readers a protagonist with a wicked sense of humor and a barrel of insecurities. Slowly, readers will pick up on hints Danielle drops about a traumatic event in her past she is no longer able to ignore. But it all ends superbly, the feel-good conclusion swelling with happiness.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)