Boys, Girls & Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman

Starting high school is going to be a new experience for Charlie. Middle school was a nightmare. She was friends with Lauren and Ally, who were not nice people and Charlie started to follow in their footsteps until one incident happened that sent Charlie to another school with a new start.

And it seemed to be going well. Charlie met Sydney at orientation and they became friends. Charlie also saw Will, the guy she lived next door a few years ago and they were best friends. Apparently he is back in town and now they go to the same school.

Just when Charlie was getting used to her school and joining the newspaper, a reminder about her past shows up: Nahdi.

Lauren and Ally did a horrible thing to Nahdi and Charlie was caught in the middle, so now that she sees Nahdi again, it seems that her past is catching up to her.

At her new school, sports are the rave. Will and his friend Tyler (who Charlie may have a little crush on) go out for lacrosse even though they hear the team hazes them before putting them on the team.

Charlie's new motto is to stand up for herself and not be bullied into anything, so she tries to make all of her new friends do that.

But with Will joining the lacrosse team, he may be forced to do things he doesn't want to do. And when Charlie realizes that she may have stronger feelings than just friendship toward Will, she has to decide if she wants to be with someone who gives into peer pressure. And she'll have to make a decision to tell the authorities what's going on, even though Will has asked her not to.

What will Charlie do? Will it ruin everything she has worked for at her new school? Read Boys, Girls & Other Hazardous Materials by Rosalind Wiseman to find out!

My Thoughts/Reflections
This was a cute novel. It was recommended to me through Goodreads and I had it at my library, so I just picked it up and read it really fast.

Usually I don't read YA books if they are a freshman or younger, but Charlie didn't act too immature for my tastes so I decided to keep reading and find out what happens with this group of teens.

And Charlie is really mature for her age because of the horrible things her "so called friends" did when she was in middle school. Now she's learned to try to stay out of situations that could hurt other people - even though in Charlies case that is kind of hard.

So, overall, it was a cute novel. Not my favorite, but not one that I didn't finish or wish that I hadn't read when I finished it. Just a cute little novel that had a little different plot than other YA novels that I've read lately.

If anyone wants to read a novel about trying to be your own person, not following cliques or popularity, learning when to stand up for yourself, and making friends with the right people, this would be a good novel for you.

I would say that any female teen could read this - even younger ones because Charlie and her friends are just freshmen in this novel, so they could find something to relate to.