Has Anybody read Criss Cross??

Question

hey just wondering if anyone could give me a summary of the book called Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins. I really need to know what it's about! thanks!

Answer 1

Reviews
And here I thought I could read anything...
After attempting to read Criss Cross four times, I gave up. I just could not make it through this wretched piece of dreck. It's true that some people will find the writing lyrical, the characters both subtle and meaningful, and the plot fulfilling. The rest of us will find it boring and pretentious. Yes, it's a love it or hate it book.



Criss Cross falls more in the realm of character study than anything else. It examines the thoughts and feelings of a group of friends over a period of time. If your idea of a riveting storyline is "When will someone find Debbie's lost necklace?" then you're in for a treat. If you prefer books with more action than introspection, however, this is not the book for you.



The writing can either be described as beautiful and sensitive or possibly as hideously forced. (You can tell which camp I'm in. It made me wince.)



And then there are the characters... After four attempts, I'm afraid I still cannot identify with any of them. I didn't like or dislike them, either. They were just there. Maybe if I'd gotten past the writing and complete lack of action, they would have seemed more real to me, but I currently feel all the warmth for them that I feel for cardboard. Usually in a book, I can find at least one thought or comment that really strikes a chord--even in books I dislike. Sadly, not Criss Cross. It's as though the characters had every bit of fire and life sucked from them.



So to say that I was disappointed with this year's Newbery Medal-winner would be an understatement. As a librarian, I can't imagine recommending this book to anyone without following the recommendation with hysterical laughter. I certainly can't see recommending it to most young adults as anything other than a sleep aid. For Pete's Sake, go read the other Newberys instead and save yourself some agony.

A plot! A plot! My kingdom for a plot!
I had this book on a cart of to-be-processed books in my library but had not yet read it. A colleague who is a middle school language arts teacher asked me my opinion of it, saying that she had read up through page 50 and given up because nothing had happened and she was bored to tears - and she rarely gives up on a book.



So I started reading it. Past page 50 - nothing had happened. Past page 84 - nothing had happened. Through the end - nothing.



I can't say that nothing at all happened - many little incidents happened. Some of the descriptions were interesting, the characters seemed pleasant; one actually cared what happened to them. Often, however, I found the writing so overly crafted that instead of being pulled into the book one was too busy noticing that the author was being clever-clever.



The book reads almost like a string of creative writing exercises. Some of them are very good exercises indeed, but one does expect of a book that the episodes will link together into a plot, or that at the very least the "something" that is foreshadowed by a character's wish in the first chapter will happen. Through the whole book I kept saying to myself, "The point! Get to the POINT! IS there a point?" There wasn't. There was only the feeling that the various threads could be, might possibly be about to be, pulled together. Ha. We should be so lucky.



As at least one other reviewer has pointed out, the line on the dust jacket ("She wished something would happen") is ironic. Boy, I wished something would happen, too.



The one wholehearted compliment I can give to this book is that, for one that is aimed at "young adults," it is relatively inoffensive. That in itself is a recommendation, I suppose, because the sludge that is written for "young adults" these days is truly appalling.





Criss Cross
Criss Cross by Lenna Rae Perkins is a Newbery Award winnig book. i think that I really liked this book because it had a lot to do with friends and since i'm a social person then it was the right book for me. I rated this book a our because it had very good details as i was expexting from the author. i would recommened that you read this book if you're really patient with waiting on for the climax of the story to happen. it ahs a lot of great personalities mixed in with the characters. i thik that they all formed together to make the book really interesting. my favorite character of the book would have to be Jenny. Ithink that she was the best character out of all of the characters in the book. so if you have the patience to read a book and you're not worried about getting to the end, then i think that you'll have good time with it. R.Copeland

« Book review: Bull RunBook review: The Time Traveler’s Wife »Book review

And here I thought I could read anything...

After attempting to read Criss Cross four times, I gave up. I just could not make it through this wretched piece of dreck. It's true that some people will find the writing lyrical, the characters both subtle and meaningful, and the plot fulfilling. The rest of us will find it boring and pretentious. Yes, it's a love it or hate it book.

Criss Cross falls more in the realm of character study than anything else. It examines the thoughts and feelings of a group of friends over a period of time. If your idea of a riveting storyline is "When will someone find Debbie's lost necklace?" then you're in for a treat. If you prefer books with more action than introspection, however, this is not the book for you.

The writing can either be described as beautiful and sensitive or possibly as hideously forced. (You can tell which camp I'm in. It made me wince.)

And then there are the characters... After four attempts, I'm afraid I still cannot identify with any of them. I didn't like or dislike them, either. They were just there. Maybe if I'd gotten past the writing and complete lack of action, they would have seemed more real to me, but I currently feel all the warmth for them that I feel for cardboard. Usually in a book, I can find at least one thought or comment that really strikes a chord--even in books I dislike. Sadly, not Criss Cross. It's as though the characters had every bit of fire and life sucked from them.

So to say that I was disappointed with this year's Newbery Medal-winner would be an understatement. As a librarian, I can't imagine recommending this book to anyone without following the recommendation with hysterical laughter. I certainly can't see recommending it to most young adults as anything other than a sleep aid. For Pete's Sake, go read the other Newberys instead and save yourself some agony.


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A plot! A plot! My kingdom for a plot!

I had this book on a cart of to-be-processed books in my library but had not yet read it. A colleague who is a middle school language arts teacher asked me my opinion of it, saying that she had read up through page 50 and given up because nothing had happened and she was bored to tears - and she rarely gives up on a book.

So I started reading it. Past page 50 - nothing had happened. Past page 84 - nothing had happened. Through the end - nothing.

I can't say that nothing at all happened - many little incidents happened. Some of the descriptions were interesting, the characters seemed pleasant; one actually cared what happened to them. Often, however, I found the writing so overly crafted that instead of being pulled into the book one was too busy noticing that the author was being clever-clever.

The book reads almost like a string of creative writing exercises. Some of them are very good exercises indeed, but one does expect of a book that the episodes will link together into a plot, or that at the very least the "something" that is foreshadowed by a character's wish in the first chapter will happen. Through the whole book I kept saying to myself, "The point! Get to the POINT! IS there a point?" There wasn't. There was only the feeling that the various threads could be, might possibly be about to be, pulled together. Ha. We should be so lucky.

As at least one other reviewer has pointed out, the line on the dust jacket ("She wished something would happen") is ironic. Boy, I wished something would happen, too.

The one wholehearted compliment I can give to this book is that, for one that is aimed at "young adults," it is relatively inoffensive. That in itself is a recommendation, I suppose, because the sludge that is written for "young adults" these days is truly appalling.




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Criss Cross

Criss Cross by Lenna Rae Perkins is a Newbery Award winnig book. i think that I really liked this book because it had a lot to do with friends and since i'm a social person then it was the right book for me. I rated this book a our because it had very good details as i was expexting from the author. i would recommened that you read this book if you're really patient with waiting on for the climax of the story to happen. it ahs a lot of great personalities mixed in with the characters. i thik that they all formed together to make the book really interesting. my favorite character of the book would have to be Jenny. Ithink that she was the best character out of all of the characters in the book. so if you have the patience to read a book and you're not worried about getting to the end, then i think that you'll have good time with it. R.Copeland

Answer 2

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RE:
Has Anybody read Criss Cross??
hey just wondering if anyone could give me a summary of the book called Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins. I really need to know what it's about! thanks!

Answer 3

read criss cross: https://tinyurl.im/e/has-anybody-read-criss-cross

Answer 4

NOPE THIS IS THE FIRST TIME I HEARD ABOUT THIS BOOK CHECK IN THE LIBRARY OR BOOK STORE

GOOD LUCK