The Books: The Girl Who Wanted a Boy (Paul Zindel)

Daily Book Excerpt: YA books:

Next book on the shelf is The Girl Who Wanted a Boy by Paul Zindel.

There’s a funny story behind this book – which I loved as a teenager. I signed it out of the high school library. I read it. I loved it. Months later – perhaps YEARS – Betsy and Mere were going through a library-hijinx phase. I think it was Betsy and Mere. They had a free period, they would hang out in the library, and basically scroll through the shelves looking for silly-sounding books, and then sign them out (at least put their names in the back) to people they knew. So suddenly it looked like I had taken out a book called How To Get a Boy to Love You in 30 Days. Stupid stuff – but very funny, too. Betsy even took it far enough to make an announcement over the loudspeaker one morning – I think she might have even made up a fake contest for Mere to ‘win’ – so Betsy went on the loudspeaker and said, “Congratulations to Meredith – winner of the such-and-such contest – and her prize is her very own copy of her favorite book: Programmed for Love!” Needless to say, Programmed for Love is not and never was Mere’s favorite book. But those words blasted throughout the school. I still remember sitting in math class, hearing Betsy’s triumphant voice declaring, “Programmed for Love” over the loudspeaker and sitting there shaking with laughter. The point was to embarrass each other over goofy-titled books. So. I happened to be in the library with Betsy and Mere, and we were goofing off in the stacks, getting more and more hysterical. We were pulling books off the shelves, checking the back to see who had signed it out (this was when there were little actual library cards in the back of the book) – and making jokes. Then the worst thing possible happened. Betsy saw a book on the shelf – drew it out – and immediately started making fun of the title – which was The Girl Who Wanted a Boy. Yes!! Horrible title! I knew immediately that I was in big BIG trouble – but it all happened so fast I didn’t have a chance to defend myself – Betsy pulled it out, and said, in a cooing voice, “Ohhhhh, isn’t this cute? The Girl Who Wanted a Boy!! So adorable!” Then she opened the back of the book, pulled out the library card – and there was my name. I had actually signed it out. Ahhhhh! I could not defend myself! We all just LOST it – Betsy gaped at me – and then we were out of commission, laughing so hysterically that we had to leave the library. I kept trying to say, “Guys … guys … it’s a really good book!” – but naturally, with a title like that, they were both like, “Suuuuuuuuuuuure it is.”

The main character is an oddball girl named Sibella. She’s 17. She has no real friends – and her parents are very worried about her. She’s not a normal girl. She’s a mechanical genius, can fix anything, and walks around with a toolbox – which should just let you know how unsuccessful she really is, socially. But inside, Sibella is all heart. She is waiting for the right one. She lies in bed at night, aching for “the right one”. You kind of worry about Sibella, to tell you the truth. It seems like she is gonna get her heart broke BAD. So then – one random day – she sees a picture in the newspaper – of a young race car driver who lives in her town. I guess maybe there’s a small race-track on the outskirts of town -can’t remember. But anyway – she sees this guy’s picture and she immediately knows: That’s him. She’s never seen him before – he’s 24 – she’s in high school – he has no idea who she is … but she knows. She just knows in her heart that he is The One. So she goes out to find him. It’s all kind of awful and awkward and comedic … Zindel, in my opinion, doesn’t make a misstep here. Dan, of course, turns out to be just a guy – not perfect, not The One … but … Sibella was right … there is something about him … Sibella, frankly, acts like a crazy person and Dan is right to be wary of her. But against all odds – a kind of strange friendship starts up … but you can see that one of the reasons Dan likes her, and tolerates her – is that he likes being seen the way she sees him. He’s kind of a loser, truth be told. Down on his luck. He likes having Sibella see into his soul, see the good in him, look up to him.

Here’s an excerpt I always loved. Sibella goes to confide in her father about all of this. Her parents are divorced – her mother is kind of a pain – she’s a busybody, she’s a dating maniac, she thinks her daughter’s a weirdo – and her father, a scientist who works in a lab – is the guy she goes to when she has real problems.

Excerpt from The Girl Who Wanted a Boy by Paul Zindel.

Sibella made it to the laboratory by ten-thirty, and took the elevator to the fifth floor – where she remembered exactly which door led to her favorite person in the world. She knew he would be preoccupied, probably wouldn’t even notice the door opening. Most of all she knew he would love being surprised. Inside, she looked across the half dozen lab tables and labyrinthine tubes connected to retorts and distillation apparati. He was alone, busy with a titration, carefully watching the drops fall into a beaker to see when acid would become base.

“Daddy,” Sibella called softly.

Her father looked up. “Sibella! How are you? Come on over. I’ll be finished in a second.”

“I don’t want to interrupt.”

“No, no, don’t worry about it.”

She watched him expertly guide the titration to its conclusion. He still looked exactly as he did in the big photograph on her bedstand. Kind loving eyes, distinguished – just a touch of gray in his hair. He was the one person she felt hadn’t changed on her.

“Your mother called,” he said, taking her into his arms and giving her a big hug and a kiss.

“I figured she would,” she said, unwrapping his coffee and doughnuts. “I haven’t seen you since Thanksgiving, so I thought I’d just take a ride in.”

“Ah, my favorite doughnuts.” He beamed and then added, “Your mother sounds as spaced out as ever. She was telling me about her new boyfriend. How affectionate and considerate he is. But she seemed very disturbed about Maureen and what she’s been doing to you – giving you a hard time as usual.”

“Yes, Dad.”

“There’s a kit to build a computer I could get you. You could just make a code and keep your diary in that. Nobody would be able to pull it out and retrieve it except you. You look like you’re feeling pretty good.” He smoothed the hair on top of her head.

“Well, I am,” Sibella admitted. “So I said this morning, to hell with school, I’ve got to go and see the wizard.”

“I don’t know how much of a wizard I am. But I’ve been meaning to tell you, I’ve got a secondhand binocular microscope for you for Christmas.”

“Oh, Dad, you didn’t!”

“Look, I said I would. I did. It’s a honey. They were using it in the National Aniline Division on Rector Street – but they’re phasing that lab out. Remember when I had you doing the experiments on supersaturated solutions and you ran up here with those flasks of copper sulfate? This is the same kind of scope.”

She couldn’t resist wrapping her arms around him.

“I miss you, Daddy.”

“I miss you, too,” he said. “But you’re coming along fine, just fine. Please don’t be too impatient. That’s all I wrory about. You’re too smart, Sibella. I think you made yourself too smart just to make me happy, so maybe it’s my fault, but I’m very proud of you, very proud.”

“Daddy, I needed to ask you about something,” she said gently, solemnly. She leaned her head against his shoulder.

“From what I hear, you’re going to ask me something about love.”

“Right on the nose, Daddy. You taught me about atoms and condensers, foot candles and electrodes. I know Ohm’s Law and horsepower and the corpuscular theory – but I don’t know anything about love.”

“Why don’t you tell me about this boy? Your mother says he worked at some kind of midget racetrack. Tell me about him. Is he special?”

“Daddy, I feel like I’m going to die if I don’t have him. I want to own him. I want to pick him up in my arms and go running down the street with him and tuck him into my tool kit,” Sibella said desperately. “I love him so much I wish we could explode together. That our atoms and electrons could get inside each other. I’m so sad. I love him so much, I’m sad, that’s how special he is.”

“Did you tell him this?” her father asked very seriously.

“Yes.”

“Well,” her father said, “then you’ve given your heart away.”

Sibella lifted her head from his shoulder. She looked into his eyes to find out whether that meant she had done right or wrong.

“I used to give my heart away,” her father said. “Not to Pauline,” he clarified, evoking in Sibella the memory of her dad’s girl friend. “I gave it to your mother, and you know what she did with it. I think it’s very good to give your heart away a few times at your age, just so you know what dazzling love can be like; but then you learn that there are laws of science. I can only really tell you what you will learn to do eventually, and this law I call the law of love’s reciprocity. It means you don’t give your heart to anyone unless you know he wants it, and wants to give you his.”

“How can you know this?” Sibella asked, listening to every word as though he truly was a wizard.

“Well, you see there’s a lot of pieces to the human body and soul besides the heart. When you learn to practice the law well, the next time you see a boy you think you could love very deeply, you first say Hello. You start very small and see if there is any response. If the boy says Hello back, then perhaps you offer him a piece of candy. If he takes the candy, then you wait, perhaps days, weeks. And if the boy is interested, if he’s going to be the right boy for you, he’s going to offer you something, perhaps a piece of cake. And then one day you might offer him your hand, or even a kiss, or say, ‘I’ve got some tickets to a good horror flick’ – and if he takes that hand or that kiss or that movie then you wait again. Give him a chance to measure out some act that will signal you that he values you in equal weight. No matter how short or how long it all takes, finally the day comes when you’ll know it’s time to give him your heart. And when you do, be absolutely certain you want him to give you his. You’ll know when he’s ready. And when you accept his full love, then there is just one final rule I have to give you. That rule is Don’t then turn into the same kind of pain in the ass your mother did. This world is teeming with men and women who have won the hearts of their lovers and don’t know what the hell to do with them.”

“Dad,” Sibella whispered, understanding every word he had told her, “I think I’ll be able to do that next time, but what do I do now? I feel so crazy. Daddy, I want to do something crazy. I love this boy so much and he’s very freaked out. He’s lost. He couldn’t offer me a stick of bubble gum, much less his hand. This boy is going down the tubes. There are so many heavy trips lying on his head, I feel as though the entire world has let him down. Daddy, I want to do something crazy to make it up to him. I want to do something so nuts that I think maybe he’ll believe again. I want to give him a chance. Am I crazy to want to give him a chance?”

Her father looked at her thoughtfully, again smoothing her hair with his hand.

“This all comes under the category of desperate acts,” her father said with a little laugh. “The only rules I would say you would follow now are two: One, don’t hurt anybody; and two, don’t get knocked up. Anything else I think most of the world would consider as just a part of growing up, and I don’t want to interfere with any of that. I knew from the moment I held you in the nursery, all eight pounds, seven ounces of you – I said, ‘This is a special girl. This is a sexy, little, brilliant girl, and she’s going to have one of the most spectacular lives of any girl in the world.’ You’re always going to be original, Sibella. And some people will call that crazy. I find it daring, beautiful, and you are the most cherished invention I have ever made. Do your something crazy, Sibella. Shock a few people. I trust you, Sibella. I’ve always trusted you, and believed in you.”

Sibella lifted her lips and gave her father a big, solid kiss. “Oh, God, you’re a sweetheart. You’re one big, one-hundred-percent-pure sweetheart.” And then she laughed, singing, “Crazy, crazy, here I come! …”