Sticks and Stones

By Beth Goobie

Jujube is thrilled when Brent asks her out.

She is not so happy when the rumors start flying at school. Pretty soon her name is showing up on bathroom walls and everyone is whispering behind her back. When her mother gets involved, Jujube's reputation takes another hit. Deciding that someone has to take a stand, Jujube gathers all the other girls who have been labelled sluts—and worse—and tries to impress on her fellow students the damaging effects words can have on a person

• Language: English
• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Release date: Jan 1, 2002
• ISBN: 9781554697236

Beth Goobie

Beth Goobie grew up in a family in which the appearance of a normal childhood hid many secrets. She moved away to attend university, became a youth residential treatment worker and studied creative writing at the University of Alberta. She is the award-winning author of over twenty novels, including The Pain Eater, The Lottery, the CLA Award-winning Before Wings, and the adult novel The First Principles of Dreaming. Beth makes her home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Book preview

Cover: Sticks and Stones by Beth Goobie. The cover photo shows school lockers and the word “slut is written on one of them.”

Sticks and Stones

Beth Goobie

Logo: Orca soundings. Orca Book Publishers.

Copyright © Beth Goobie 2002, 2020

Published in Canada and the United States in 2020 by Orca Book Publishers.

Previously published in 2002 by Orca Book Publishers as a softcover (ISBN 9781551432137) and as an ebook (ISBN 9781551433950, PDF; ISBN 9781554697236, EPUB).

orcabook.com

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.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Sticks & stones / Beth Goobie.

Other titles: Sticks and stones

Names: Goobie, Beth, 1959– author.

Series: Orca soundings.

Description: Second edition. | Series statement: Orca soundings | Previously published under title Sticks and stones. Victoria, BC, Canada; Custer, WA: Orca Book Publishers, 2002. Identifiers: Canadiana 20200321412 | ISBN 9781459828216 (softcover)

Classification: LCC PS8563.O8326 S74 2020 | DDC jc813/.6—dc23

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020944972

Summary: In this high-interest accessible novel for teen readers, Jujube takes on her tormentors and helps a group of girls win back their self-esteem.

Orca Book Publishers is committed to reducing the consumption of nonrenewable resources in the making of our books. We make every effort to use materials that support a sustainable future.

Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Province of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.

Design by Ella Collier

Cover image by Eyewire (front) and Shutterstock.com/Krasovski Dmitri (back)

Printed and bound in Canada.

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Orca Book Publishers is proud of the hard work our authors do and of the important stories they create. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or did not check it out from a library provider, then the author has not received royalties for this book. The ebook you are reading is licensed for single use only and may not be copied, printed, resold or given away. If you are interested in using this book in a classroom setting, we have digital subscriptions with multi user, simultaneous access to our books, or classroom licenses available for purchase. For more information, please contact [e-mail].

ivaluecanadianstories.ca

This book is dedicated to the

Saskatoon Public Library Young Adult

Department: Rena, Laura and Diane.

—B.G.

Chapter One

The whole thing started right after I erased my left eyebrow. Not that I’d meant to. Tuesday night I’d gone into high gear plucking my eyebrows. The next day I looked like I’d leaned too close to a Bunsen burner during a science experiment. This is big-time trauma when you’re fifteen. I had to go around trying to keep my missing eyebrow covered with my left hand. That was the day Brent Floyd decided to ask me to the Valentine’s Day dance.

There I was at my locker, dumping my books. I was on my way to the Camera Club to develop a series of shots I’d taken around home. Mom and I share a house with my friend Sophie and her mother. I had taken some funny shots of Sophie and my dog Popcorn.

Hey, Jujube!

For as long as I can remember, everyone’s called me Jujube. It’s because I have one blue eye and one green eye. And now—one eyebrow. I looked up to see Brent coming down the hall. Of course, my brain stopped working. It always does in a crisis. I’d only liked the guy for about a decade—not that I admitted it to anyone. And it’s tough trying to look casual with your left hand glued to your forehead.

Hi, Brent.

Brent

Reviews for Sticks and Stones

[ringenka · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The bright yellow lockers with the red graphitti shouting "SLUT" on the cover will draw teens to pick up Sticks and Stones. The high interest content in the book will keep them reading. Jujube is a freshman in highschool. On Friday, she attends a dance with a guy from school, when she returns to class the following week, rumors have been spread about just how far Jujube goes on a first date. The book describes the evolution of her feelings from embaressment to anger to fighting back. The Orca Soundings series is written for low-level readers, although younger audiences might be able to read the book, the concepts are for teenagers.

[tildagustafsson_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Sticks and Stones was an interesting book.It was about a girl who was with a guy one night and everybody at her school found out and started calling her names and wrote her name all over the bathrooms.The girl got really upset and told her mom. Her mom then went to the school's principle and told him to erase everything in the bathrooms but the principle said they didn't have enough money so the girl herself, went into the boy's bathrooms and looked at all the names in there and gathered together the girls whose name was written down and they made a little club and erased it themselves and that was the end. I thought it was an interesting book while i was reading it but i thought it had a bad ending.

[auntkrissy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Part of the Orca series: high interest stories for teens with reading levels from 2.0 to 4.5. Accelerated Reader quiz available. Interesting cover may be offensive to some but will attract others. The book cover features a picture of a locker bank with one of the lockers vandalized with the word 'slut' in red paint.

[nms09 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book starts off in a high school dance and goes out into the parking lot in the back seat of a car. That is where the stories begin to occur. Everyone thinks that Trudy and Brent had relations togther and the talking begins. Everyone calls Trudy easy and a slut because they think she gave it up. Trudy knows the truth and she does not like the name calling and the looks. She uses the rumors that were written on the bathroom stalls and uses them to make people aware of how words can hurt people, but it does not mean that those words are the truth.

[sandystiles · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Quick read for girl who doesn't like to. STory line is that a high school student on her first date with a boy, goes into the backseat of his car with him to get some equipment out (she thinks) when he starts forcing himself on her. She explains that she is interested, but it gets around that she is "easy". Graffiti around the school about her being a slut is very hurtful. She finds a creative way to make the situation better.

[okmliteracy7 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this page-turner, Jujube can't even walk through the halls without being laughed at or called a "slut". Since the principal won't do anything about it, she decides to take matters in her own hands. Will Jujube ever feel the same?Navjot T.

[peonygoat_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

After developing an unearned reputation as a slut, Jujube finds a novel way to take on her tormentors and help a group of girls win back their self-esteem.