Life by Committee

Reviewed by: Peg Becksvoort - Falmouth Middle, Falmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 13, 2015

Review

Interesting! Life By Committee has a bit of "dare" and a lot of the anonymity of the use of social media.

Tabitha's small Vermont town could well be a small Maine town - students will find parts of the story mesh with their own experiences. In a small town, you may go to school with the same kids from pre-school through high school. Picture the insecurity one might have going through puberty and going from the person you have been for 14 years to being very attractive. Wow! Then involve the use of social media to help with asking all those questions that we have when we are maturing.

The social media, Life by Committee - where you tell a secret, it is discussed and a challenge is issued felt to this reader a bit like "Post Secrets" with a negative twist. In Post Secrets, people send anonymous secrets on a postcard to an address in MD. These postcards are posted on the website, http://postsecret.com/ - in the case of the actual website, nothing further happens. It is a site that allows a person to unburden themselves of a secret. The author of LBC has taken this one step further. Readers will be engaged, suggested for grades 8 and up.

Overall Book Score: very good