...Or Not?
by Brian Mandabach

    ...OR NOT? by Brian Mandabach
    Category:  Contemporary
    Age Recommendation:  Grades 9+
    Release Date:  10/1/07
    Publisher:  Flux
    Reviewed by:  Marta Morrison
    Rating:  5 Stars


    Cassie is my hero.  She is an intelligent non-conformist who is stuck in junior high.  

    ...OR NOT? starts with the summer before Cassie goes into eighth grade.  It is told through Cassie's journal.  
    She lives with her mom and dad and has a brother in college.  They live in Colorado and have a rustic cabin,
    which she loves, in the mountains.  Her family walks to a different drummer, with her father being a lawyer and
    her mother a musician.  

    They are a family who talks at the dinner table of politics and philosophy.  They enjoy being together, especially
    at the cabin.  That is where Cassie would like to be always.  She loves the mountains and all of nature. She
    really is at home there.   

    Cassie doesn't fit in at school, though.  She is odd because she really doesn't care about the things that her
    classmates care about. Her style of dress is different and she shaves off her hair, but doesn't shave her legs.   
    She has fits of depression and thoughts of suicide.  During her eighth-grade year she finally finds a group of
    friends.  But before that she must endure religious intolerance, paranoia, and horrible bullying.  

    The school officials were ineffective, which made me sad but is also realistic because I teach school and it can
    be a minefield.  Cassie discovers and learns to really love herself by the end of the novel and it is a truly
    wondrous ride.  I recommend this book if you really don't fit, but even if you do you might learn something about
    how the other half feels. I laughed, cried, and couldn't wait to hear what would happen to Cassie.  ...OR NOT?
    is also well-written.  It's always nice when the story is great and the writing superb!