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by Dina Havranek
The hilarious and heartening story of a teen girl who makes several astonishingly terrible decisions in an effort to find the support she needs.
A spectacular YA novel from a long-time teacher and debut author, perfect for fans of coming-of-age stories like Radio Silence and The Rest of Us Just Live Here.
Giddy Barber knows with certainty she's going to become a mechanical engineer. What she doesn't know is the last time she smiled.
With her parents overworked and unavailable, it falls to Giddy to make sure her siblings stay on track. But she's exhausted. When you're the person everyone else turns to, what do you do when you hit a wall?
Giddy finds an answer online—if you can't handle how things are going, shake them up. Is it sound advice? Unclear. But is Giddy willing to try anything? Absolutely. Putting eleven days on the clock, she'll change her routine. But soon it becomes clear that some problems are bigger than what an online column can fix—her family is fracturing, her anxiety is mounting, and all she knows is this: Something. Has. To. Give.
In Dina Havranek's Giddy Barber Explodes in 11, a long-time teacher dives into the issues of depression, overwork, and lack of support many of her students are dealing with. In a results-obsessed society, how much are we demanding of teens? And what happens when their burdens become too much?
"A well-meaning if sometimes muddled story of one teen's efforts to break free of parentification." —Kirkus Reviews
This information about Giddy Barber Explodes in 11 was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Dina Havranek hails from Houston, Texas where she teaches Science to the excellent students at Timberwood Middle School. A former TV news reporter and local actress, she loves being on stage and has been a speaker at the DFW writers conference where she is a regular attendee. She lives with her husband, her daughter, an out-of-control Lego collection and a pair of extremely ungrateful cats.
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