Plastic

By Sarah N. Harvey

When Jack develops an interest in something, he puts his all into it, making lists, doing research and learning all he can. When his best friend Leah decides to have plastic surgery for her sixteenth birthday, Jack is horrified—and then determined to stop her. Researching the surgery and the results, he finds that there are unscrupulous surgeons operating on the very young, and no one does anything about it. Jack organizes a protest and becomes an instant celebrity. But when someone else takes up the cause and the protest turns violent, Jack is forced to make some tough decisions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Mar 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781554695195

Sarah N. Harvey

Sarah N. Harvey writes for both children and young adults. Some of her books have been translated into Korean, French, German and Slovenian. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia, where she works as a children's book editor. For more information, visit www.sarahnharvey.com.

Book preview

Plastic

Plastic

Sarah N. Harvey

Orca Soundings

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

Copyright © 2010 Sarah N. Harvey

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced

or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photocopying, recording or by any information storage

and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission

in writing from the publisher.

National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data

Harvey, Sarah N., 1950-

Plastic / Sarah N. Harvey.

(Orca soundings)

ISBN 978-1-55469-253-8 (library binding).--ISBN 978-1-55469-252-1 (pbk.)

I. Title. II. Series: Orca soundings

PS8615.A764P53 2010     jC813’.6     C2009-906839-7

First published in the United States, 2010

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009940840

Summary: Trying to save his best friend from the horrors of plastic surgery,

Jack ends up on the front line of a protest about unscrupulous surgeons.

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing

programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada

through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts,

and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council

and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Cover design by Teresa Bubela

Cover photography by Getty Images

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

PO BOX 5626, STN. B

VICTORIA, BC Canada

V8R 6S4

ORCA BOOK PUBLISHERS

PO BOX 468

CUSTER, WA USA

98240-0468

www.orcabook.com

Printed and bound in Canada.

Printed on 100% PCW recycled paper.

13 12 11 10 • 4 3 2 1

To Christine, whose idea it was

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Acknowledgments

Chapter One

Boobs, bazongas, bazookas, big berthas, blouse bunnies, boulders, buds, cannons, chubbies, coconuts, the devil’s dumplings, dirty pillows, flesh melons, fun bags, the girls, hooters, headlights, jubblies, jugs, knobs, knockers, milk wagon, milkshakes, ninnies, norks, pompoms, rack, speed bumps, sweater cows, tatas, tits, torpedoes, twin peaks, chest pumpkins, mosquito bites, raisins on a breadboard, aspirins on an ironing board, bee stings, goose bumps on steroids. I could go on.

Number of words I know for breasts: one hundred and thirty-eight, and counting.

Number of times since the age of ten that I have actually seen a naked female breast (not counting TV or movies or online): four. My cousin Amber when I was twelve and she was fifteen. I grabbed her towel when she was changing at the beach. A woman in the mall who was nursing her baby. Janice Hayward when her shirt rode up when she was taking off her sweatshirt in PE. And, sadly, my mom.

Number of times since the age of ten that I have actually touched a naked female breast: zero. Amber punched me out. The woman in the mall flipped me off and pulled a blanket over her chest. Janice called me a pathetic loser perv. My mom, who is a women’s studies professor, just laughed and tied her robe a bit tighter. When I was younger, I saw her and my dad naked all the time. It was no big deal. Really.

I’m not alone in my obsession with breasts. I’m just more organized than most guys. I keep track of things. In notebooks. I’ve always kept notes about things I’m interested in. I even have a notebook that keeps track of my notebooks. When I was five, it was caterpillars. When I was ten, it was fossils. When I was twelve, it was crows. Now that I’m fifteen, it’s breasts. I’m not a stalker or anything. I don’t have a secret porn collection under my bed. I’m only interested in boobs in the wild. No airbrushing, no surgery. Just the real deal.

My observation skills are very highly developed. That’s one of the reasons that I ended up at the Warren Academy. Warren is a high school for gifted kids. Don’t get too excited. There’s no end-of-the-year performance where a talent scout discovers the ballerina turned hip-hop star. Warren is a school for the academically, not artistically, gifted. Our end-of-theyear assembly features awards for the highest marks in things like college-level statistics. There are announcements about who got into what university and how big their scholarships are. Then everyone sings the school song, The Warren Way. It was written in 1927 by the wife of the school’s founder. That’s as artsy as we get. The kids who are great at singing, dancing or acting go to the Beacon School for the Performing Arts. They probably don’t worry too much about getting into Ivy League schools. Warren is for kids who get straight A’s in physics. They couldn’t dance if you held a gun to

Reviews for Plastic

[salsabrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jack's best friend Leah reveals her mother is giving her a boob job for her 16th birthday. Jack, despite being a boob man, is concerned enough that he researches the risks. What he learns leads to undercover consulting appointments with surgeons and picketing Leah's surgeon's office, which attracts national attention. The story comes off as a message-heavy issues novel (plastic surgery is bad for teens, see the numbered list of reasons why on pages 28-29!!!), which is a bit of a turnoff. But the topic is unique enough in YA lit that it will draw the curious, and the prose is easily digested. What next, a novel on the dangers of tanning beds? Texting while driving?

[librarianmaven · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Jack has never wanted to be an activist like his parents and brother, but when his best friend Leah decides to get breast augmentation for her sixteenth birthday, Jack decides to take action with unpredictable results. This hi-lo young adult novel immediately catches readers with an extensive list of euphemisms and slang for breasts. From there on, the novel moves fast and keeps readers’ attention while discussing the issue of plastic surgery in a non-preaching tone. Told from the first person viewpoint of Jack, Plastic engages readers with the issue of plastic surgery for teens. Jack is open about his sexual interest in women’s breasts without reducing women to mere objects, and the combination of a male protagonist and the largely female issue of breast augmentation make for a read that boys and girls alike may enjoy. Like many hi-lo novels, some subject matter may be inappropriate for younger readers, though this novel does not cross genres into urban fiction. It is worth noting that Jack comes from a solidly upper-middle class family and attends a school for the best and brightest, two facets of his character that may make him less approachable for some readers. A valuable addition to a public or school library’s collection of hi-lo young adult novels.

[shookrl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In this hilo teen read, we follow a high school student as he attempts to stop his best friend, who is only 16, from getting a breast augmentation by taking to his roots as a member of an activist family. Although he supports a peaceful protest, he has a falling out with the friend he is trying to support in loving herself for who she is. He soon learns that he cannot change everybody and that not everyone is what they seem but in the end his peaceful protests prevail in not only helping his friend change her mind, but in also changing the practices of plastic surgeons in his community. Recommended for teens.

[nicoally · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Breasts--that is all 15 year-old Jack can think about until his best friend Leah decides to get breast augmentation done for her 16th birthday. Jack is shocked and mystified that a doctor would perform this kind of surgery on a teenager. He conducts some goes undercover to do some research about breast augmentation and does not like what he finds outs. This leads Jack to protesting cosmetic surgery performed on teenagers. The storyline gives a convincing account of an adolescent boy’s mind, which makes it seems more realistic. Though the topic in this hi-low appears a bit mature, the simple vocabulary and simple text, keep the interest of many ages. Additionally, many teenagers deal with this teen plastic surgery issue and it has become a hot topic. Recommend for ages 13-18.

[terihogg · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

 Jack, a 15-year-old boy, is preoccupied with girls breasts and knows just about every term for them. When his best friend, Leah, is gifted breast augmentation surgery from her image obsessed mom for her 16th birthday, Jack is horrified and begins an undercover expose on the dirty side of plastic surgery. First he digs online to find out the popularity of teen plastic surgery and it’s risks. Most troubling is that many local doctors perform these unnecessary surgeries on young teenagers, feeding on their insecurities. We discover that Jack’s father’s job keeps him overseas for months at a time and that his mother is a protester of everything that can be protested and encourage him on. Jack goes undercover to discover how unscrupulous surgeons prey on self-concious teens. Jack soon starts a protest to protect his friend. Plastic is a fast, interesting read, geared as a hi-lo book. The limited number of characters gives just the right amount of plot to only the most essential people. It’s not terribly graphic, outside of the word “breast” and its synonyms, and it is a hot topic among teens. Jack’s parents might fit in with a Hollywood crowd, but otherwise seem a bit cartoonish. Recommended. Boys and Girls interested in plastic surgery ages 13-18.

[christianr_899499 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While this is certainly an issue that deserves attention, I wish it had been done better. Jack, a brainiac, is obsessed with breasts. Silly portrayal of him. Nevertheless, when his best friend Leah decides to get a boob job he goes into research and protest mode, because even though he loves breasts he realizes that this kind of surgery of teens is potentially harmful as well as a bad form of body image management. It all moves along too quickly and the characters seem to do things only so the author can prove a point. It all needed to be better thought out.

[skstiles612 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When his best friend Leah decides to have plastic surgery for her sixteenth birthday, Jack is horrified—and then determined to stop her. Researching the surgery and the results, he finds that there are unscrupulous surgeons operating on the very young, and no one does anything about it. Jack organizes a protest and becomes an instant celebrity. But when someone else takes up the cause and the protests turns violent, Jack is forced to make some tough decisions.This is a book every teenager, especially girls, should read. In a time when our society places so much emphasis on appearances, we see teenagers making decisions about their bodies that could have catastrophic outcomes.Jack has many obsessions. He keeps track of them in notebooks. His newest obsession? Boobs. When his best friend in the world decides to have a breast augmentation, also known as a “boob job”, Josh steps in to try to change her mind. The problem is he may just lose her as a friend. In a time when standing up for what you believe to be right is not so popular, Josh has to make a tough decision no matter what the consequences. He knows he won’t be popular. Doing the right thing is never popular. But, if he can save his friend from doctors who only care about the almighty dollar then it is worth it.This was a very quick and eye opening read. I wondered how many other teens would stand up and be counted in an unpopular subject like teen plastic surgery? I can’t wait for this to come out in book form to put it on my shelves at school.