So, it turns out that, no, her parents did not name her Mister (thankfully), but it is a nick named derived from the first letters of her first and middle names: Mary Rudine. A pretty typical teen, unsure of herself, a lack of self-esteem. Along comes Trey and he tells her she is the greatest thing ever to come into his life.Mister is a church going teen who reads her Bible fairly diligently until she succumbs to Trey's seduction and sleeps with him. "These days, I wake and look at The Book, a familiar stranger collecting dust on my bedside tale. I haven't felt the weight of it in my hands for weeks. How can I call it mine anymore. I know the score. It's fragile pages make it clear: sex outside of marriage is sin. Spin it any way you like, I blew it."And then along comes Mary- of the Bible that is- Jesus' mother. And her story is told also, that she will become the mother of God, "An angel slips into my room, announces that God is on his way, then tells me I am to be mother of Messiah, the Promised One, the Savior of our people; that my once barren cousin Elizabeth, too old to bear a child, bears one now."The book is written in prose poetry and is fairly well done.The disturbing thing, that makes the book fall apart, is the comparison of insecure Mary Rudine with Christ's mother, Mary. There really is no similarity beyond their names being the same and that they are both women with feelings. It is disturbing to see a comparison of Mary Rudine's favorite jeans' zipper not zipping and Mary, Jesus' mother, feeling nauseous at the smell of warm goat's milk.One girl's story is that of being raised in a church and turning her back on the teaching and engaging in premarital sex.The other is the story of a girl raised in the synagogue and staying true to her religion.They just don't compare, it's a stretch and it's bothersome. There are no words to describe how extraordinary Nikki Grimes is. I got a lot from this book, though I must say that I am glad that this same situation has not presented itself to me, and hopefully it shall not.I liked how perfect Mister seemed at the beginning of this book; the most defining trait of her being her 'pureness' until she wasn't. Let me just fume about Trey for a bit though. I hate him, he's a player with too much game for me to put up with. "I pity the fool," (Mr. T) and yes, I am calling Mister a fool right now. I don't care how much he loves you, she was much too young for this to happen to her. And the fact that Trey would not even accept the fact that it was his was unforgiveable. He practically called her a slut. I basically wanted to slap him, in fact, I wanted to do even worse. Not death, 'cause I wish death on no one, but some form of karma to hit him just for that. I felt no sympathy for him, even when she described his eyes as having no light in them. He chose it for himself, but I hated that he pushed her so much. It's like he's the person that makes women think that there are no gentlemen in the world, but there are. Believe me. I liked that she described how alone she felt. It really got to me, even though our situations are completely different, we both still feel alone in the world. She closed herself off, broke her friendship and had to keep hiding because she had to keep her secret, until the moment presented itself. I felt kind of disgusted with Mister's mom though, just as she was. I understand, but still I am disgusted that the exact same thing happened to her, and yet she did not stop what was happening, whether it just be from just plain ignorance or Mister's secrecy, I don't know. And then she totally disgusted me when she asked if Mister wanted to get rid of it. I didn't see her get rid of Mister, obviously, and the baby had grown so much already, so I think it would have been too late to even ponder the idea, even if just for a moment. I like that the baby, whatever his name may be, gave her that hope that she needed in the end, though, that reassurance because she obviously needed it, even if she did not want to admit it to herself.
What do You think about A Girl Named Mister (2010)?
A very quick read. Beautiful language. While written as poetry, it really does read like a story.
—yeimirockz27
This book will be perfect for our September/October spoken word poetry showcase!
—Carmela96
It was a really good. I like books that teenagers (not all) can relate to.
—joelbird
