Gossip Girl

Title - Gosspi Girl : A Novel
Author - Cesily Von Ziegesar
ISBN - 0316910333
Publication Date - 2002

Plot - Serena van der Woodsen has been at a private boarding school for quite some time, and now she is coming back into the neighborhood to upset the social scene as it were.  Ah the life of being a teenager, from sexual rumors and innuendo, Serena is about to upset the world of the high school upper class in this community.  From jealousies to rumor, people are about to stop Serena at any cost from getting what she seems to want.  When truth gets thrown out the window at this School, Serena is challenged to make a life that is not exactly what she had expected, but she seems to be all right with this ending.  Blair Waldorf sees that Serena is going to get something that she wants, and lying is not beyond her to take it from her.  They both seem to want Nate, but Serena has already had her hands on Nate, so Blair lets people think all kinds of wild and crazy stuff from her sleeping around to spreading STD's to crashing and burning with drugs.  Nothing is beyond Blair to stop Serena from keeping Nate.  Of course, lies are bound to create trouble in the long run, and Serena finds that despite the lies, she has found people who like her for who she is, in Dan and Jenny.  The best people in the end to hold onto, are those who like you, regardless of what anyone says about you.

Critical Review - A series of little vignettes tell the story of Serena van der Woodson and how she has an impact on the high school that she comes back to after being away at boarding school. Rumors follow as any new kid comes to a school, and bigger rumors follow kids that have left a school and then come back.  This is the world of all of these rumors at hyper speed.  It would seem to be an excellent choice for the High School Girls set who are caught up in the world of gossip, where the truth easily gets brushed aside, and the rumor takes on a  truth of its own.  I did appreciate that despite all the crazy rumors going around that the reader was allowed into the world of  Serena, to show how she felt about things as the truth was given a back seat.  And despite the lack of morality being told about, beginning with a quote from Oscar Wilde ("Scandal is Gossip made tedious by Morality"), there is a moral subtext here.  We are not left without some conclusion to be gained.  As Serena asks Dan at the end about what he thinks about all of the rumors, he does not believe them for a second.  The people who are important to us should be those who have faith in who we are, despite the rumors.

Readers Annotation - The new school girl in town has everything: looks, personality, charm, and the eye of every kid in school.  What is Blair Waldorf to do about it?  Lie!  Come to the World of Gossip Girl, where lies are truth, and truth means only as much as what someone believes.

About the Author - Cecily Von Ziegessar grew up in the world of Gossip Girl.  She knew first hand about the lives of the young and rich, whose worries did not tend to their parents business, but who was sleeping with whom; who got drunk; and who was taking the latest drug of choice.  She was raised in the boarding school system, where you were away from your parents for months at a time, and you developed your own set of morals to fit what you wanted. 

Her favorite quote: "Success is in the details," perfectly encapsulates both the novel and the success of the Gossip Girls Series on a broad scale.  Von Ziegessar's attention to detail in the novels gives the reader a good understanding of the mind and thought of each character.  It is the nuance in the characters that has brought her great success.

Genre - Chic Lit

Curriculum Ties - Discuss Appearance vs. Reality and the nature of Gossip.  - Ethics
Discuss some of the broad themes in Literature presented in the novel - Hubris (extreme pride)  --Who is going to be falling?

Booktalking ideas - Discuss the success of the Internet and the blogging community.  How can a blog positively/negatively effect the world around us?

Reading Interest - Grade 9+

Challenge Issues - The novel includes extreme sexuality, alcoholism and drug use without seemingly any real consequences.

Overcoming Challenges - Talk about previous generations of authors whose morals seemed to be lacking.  Talk about how the novels reflect society and the importance that society see its own reflection.  The book can be discussed in terms of morals and how morals are developed.  Provide material for parents to interact with teens concerning individuals with little to no moral understanding.

Why Included - I was not really looking forward to the Chic Lit section of this assignment, but I felt it needed some balance, and I found the reading to be far more enjoyable that I would have considered it to be upon first glance.