stefu1
Written on Aug 29, 2017
A romantic and empowering book about bullying Noelle's life is all about survival. Even her best friend doesn't know how much she gets bullied, or the ways her mom neglects her. Noelle's kept so much about her life a secret for so long that when her longtime crush Julian Porter starts paying attention to her, she's terrified. Surely it's safer to stay hidden than to risk the pain of a broken heart. But when the antagonism of her classmates takes a dramatic turn, Noelle realizes it's time to stand up for herself--and for the love that keeps her holding on.
- ISBN10 1101572051
- ISBN13 9781101572054
- Publish Date 1 May 2012
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Viking Children's
- Format eBook
- Language English
Reviews
Chelsea
Written on Feb 20, 2014
So this book had a lot to do with bullying. Maybe I’m a mean and terrible person but at the start I felt no pity towards the main character. If you’re going to let yourself be bullied and not stand up for yourself then whatever. If you can’t try to stand up for yourself then I don’t want anything to do with you. My view did change towards the middle and the end though.
My New Best Friend
I think I liked Sherae (I think that was her name) the best. She’s the best friend of the main character and I liked her more because she believed in herself way more than Noelle. She was ok with her friend being poor and even helped her out without Noelle even knowing. I just thought that she was really cute and enjoyable.
My Crush
Simon. I liked Julian but we didn’t see him as much as I would have liked so I pick Simon for my imaginary boyfriend. I loved how he didn’t care what anyone else thought of him and it made people leave him alone. He was so nice to Noelle and always bought her food because he knew she couldn’t afford it. He was just really cute and I loved it when he was around.
Writing Style
Her writing style was really good.Her dialogue was spot on and she kept her descriptions short and sweet. There’s really not a whole lot to say about it. I really liked how she writes and I might look into some more of her books.
Closing Thoughts
At the end I decided that I did kind of feel bad for Noelle because not only did she not help herself, nobody else helped her out either. There was one teacher and her best friend that even cared about her. Her own mother wouldn’t even feed her. The ending was a little sad but I think it was necessary for the character to step out of her shell and grow up. There was a lot of harsh bullying in this book and it didn’t always end up well for everyone. I think it was a good read and more teenagers in high school should read this. Nobody realizes how much bullying there really is in the world.
Bonus
There wasn’t really a bonus for me this time. It was a rough book with some hard topics but I think the author covered them really well.
Quote
“If you see someone being bullied, make it stop. Why is that so hard for us to do?”
reveriesociety_
Written on Sep 7, 2013
The writting was awesome and the author delivers de message she intended accurately.
Ashley
Written on Jul 25, 2012
Susane Colasanti is amazing. I fell in love with Noelle on the first page. And that's not an exaggeration. Noelle's character has so much voice that I can literally feel her coming off the pages. She's a teenager and she totally sounds like one! The first page she's looking at a guy in her class and has all these crazy romantic daydreams and is questioning whether she's a slut for liking two guys. I chuckled and I just knew I had to keep reading!
At only 224 pages, Keep Holding On is a super fast read. It deals with a lot of intense issues like bullying and suicide, but we see it all through a teenage bully-victim's eyes. That makes it all very easy to understand and relate to.
I honestly didn't have much experience with bullying when I was in school. Maybe there was a bit in my middle school, but there was very little at my high school. It was so saddening to hear about all the bullying in Noelle's life, that I imagine is common in high schools all over the world. Although I wasn't able to personally relate to Noelle being bullied, I really felt I could relate to her in other ways. I was kind of one of those self-made loners in high school. I could have had a lot of friends, but I just couldn't relate to the people at my school. I felt like we didn't click and didn't share interests. So rather than pursue a bunch of 'fake' relationships, I chose to mostly sit on my own. So I could relate to Noelle eating alone at lunch, or avoiding lunch all together.
This book is filled with so much emotion and sadness. Ultimately, Keep Holding On is about Noelle just wanting a normal life, a normal family, and to be loved and cared for. Is that too much to ask? Certainly not! In addition to the issues at school, she has to deal with her mother and her home life. Her mother doesn't love her or care for her. They barely have enough food to survive on, and Noelle often goes to school hungry.
In the last third of the book, the bullying goes too far. I won't say what happened since it's revealed near the end, but man. I had to stop and put the book down for a minute just so I could mull things over. This book seriously makes you think, and it will probably make you reflect on your own high school days.
One thing did kind of annoy me though. Noelle gets an opportunity to see a change in her life and maybe even be really happy. The boy she likes asked her out. But she just immediately turned him down because she decided she wasn't good enough for him. Her friend keeps telling her he obviously likes her and that she could be with him and she's just like, "No. You don't understand." And I didn't understand. When that happened I honestly couldn't help but think that Noelle was bringing on some of the unhappiness herself (though I kind of feel bad for thinking that). She wasn't letting herself be happy and she was ignoring new possibilities and opportunities.
Also, a huge part of the book is about Noelle talking (well narrating) about how one day when she becomes a teacher she will put a stop to bullying. She silently criticizes her teachers for just letting it happen and hates them for not intervening. But then, at school there's a girl who gets bullied worse than Noelle and Noelle does nothing to help her because it would "just make the bullying worse" (for Noelle). She wouldn't even hang out with the poor girl after school! So there was a bit of frustrating hypocrisy there.
But the good thing about this storie is that Noelle learns from her mistakes. She finally learns to stand up for herself and for others, and to take chances in life. The end of this book is so beautiful, heartwarming, hopeful, and unbelievably satisfying.