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    Pink
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    Pink
    Ebook266 pages3 hours

    Pink

    By Lili Wilkinson

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Ava is tired of her ultracool attitude, ultraradical politics, and ultrablack clothing. She's ready to try something new—she's even ready to be someone new. Someone who fits in, someone with a gorgeous boyfriend, someone who wears pink.

    But Ava soon finds that changing herself is more complicated than changing her wardrobe. Even getting involved in the school musical raises issues she never imagined. As she faces surprising choices and unforeseen consequences, Ava wonders if she will ever figure out who she really wants to be.

    Pink received an American Library Association Stonewall Award Honor for exceptional merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience.

    Supports the Common Core State Standards

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperTeen
    Release dateFeb 8, 2011
    ISBN9780062069634
    Unavailable
    Pink
    Author

    Lili Wilkinson

    Born in Melbourne, Australia, Lili Wilkinson was first published when she was twelve, in Voiceworks magazine. After studying creative arts at Melbourne University, Ms. Wilkinson began working for the Centre for Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria, where she managed a website for teens about books and reading. She spends most of her time reading and writing books for teens, but when she's not doing that, she's usually hanging out with friends, watching DVDs, and making monsters out of wool. Pink is her U.S. debut.

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    Reviews for Pink

    4/5

    92 ratings17 reviews

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    • 1/5
      This book is written by a grown woman still stuck in the high school mentality that OTHER cliques are conformist and exclusive, but HER clique is unique and accepting. It tries desperately to be about how it's okay to not fit in to a box, all while portraying all but the Screws as either mean lesbians, effeminite gays, or bitchy preps. The whole thing reads like it was written by a fifteen year old whose idea of feminism is Legally Blonde and thinks she's smarter than people who have spent years studying feminism because it surely must have never occurred to them that some girls LIKE the color pink. None of the characters are likeable, relateable, realistic, or well written. The Screws, who are supposed to be unique, are so indistinguishable that I kept getting them mixed up and forgetting which one was supposed to be the condescending romantic interest. My advice to the author is to move on from being dorky when she was a teenager.
    • 4/5
      Pinkby Lili Wilkinson2009/2011Harper Teen3.5 / 5.0Pink is an Australian YA queer romance about a girl in High School named Ava. She will only wear black clothing and is dating another female at the school, Chloe. They are very different.Ava goes off to College, promising Chlie she will return. Ava wants to fit in and be popular, so she changes from wearing black to only wearing pink, does not mention her girlfriend back home, and begins letting g her friends set her up with potential boyfriends.Eventually her college friends find out the truth about Ava, and her whole world changes.This book is about honest, self-respect, being disappointed and finding yourself.It is a difficult topic, but done well, allowing the reader to come to a conclusion about the situation.Well done. Recommended.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this. Was assigned to read it for the class discussion about GLBTQ literature in my YA genre class.
      What I liked best is that it's a book about a teenager who's a lesbian, and she's already come out. Now she has to navigate all kinds of universal teenage stuff about image and cliques...
      I was impressed, also, that the book resisted pigeonholing roles for its characters.
    • 5/5
      I've been hearing lots of good things about this YA book so I thought it was time I read it to see what all the fuss was about. Following Ava's attempts to find out who she is and where she belongs in the very uncertain world of being a teenager, the book sucked me in within the first few pages and I found it hard to put down.

      The plot of Pink really spoke to me. Ava's struggle to be the person she thinks other people want her to be when everyone wants her to be something different, quickly leads her to living a triple life; a version for her parents and girlfriend, a version for the cool kids at her new school, and a version for the stage crew she ends up working with on the school musical. Understandably this all just complicates Ava's life when deep down the question she's really trying to find the answer to is "Who am I?"

      I loved the character of Ava and found I could really identify with her. The teenage version of me was never cool enough to aspire to fit in with the cool and popular crowd, but I did spend a lot of time trying to be the person I thought everyone wanted to be. When Ava's efforts went wrong and she ended up hurting people I really felt for her. Whilst the book is about Ava there is a whole cast of supporting characters who are brilliantly created. So many of the other teenagers in the book reminded me of people I was at high school with.

      I found that I got wrapped up in the world of Pink really quickly. The way it's written just jumps off the page, the dialogue is convincing and the humour is well written. I felt that it dealt really well with the issues it covered, they were treated realistically and factually with no judgement attached to any of them. I think this is a book I would really have appreciated reading when I was a teenager, though it still really resonated with me now.
    • 4/5
      Clueless from Ty's perspective, PINK was a thoroughly entertaining "find yourself" teenage story. The adults portrayed are a little extreme (Ava's parents "Pat and Dave" vs. Sam's ice-queen mom), and as a straight person I can't really comment on the orientation questions, but the sheer who-do-I-like-who-am-I-what-do-I-want-to-be-when-I-grow-up maelstrom that is adolescence was very relateable and well written.
    • 5/5
      There is some humor, some sadness, some love, some hate; all wrapped into a story that draws the reader in and holds the readers attention until the very end. Ava's struggle to find herself without losing herself is endearing. It is realistic. It is heartfelt. It is one of the best books I have read in a long time. 5 stars.
    • 5/5
      I forget where I first heard about pink, but I knew that I had to read it and I knew that I loved its slick cover design. Fast forward a year to now, and I can regretfully say that pink is the book I should have read sooner than later because it is one of those rare sock-rocking books that make up for all the reading FAIL! in my TBR pile.THE GOOD BITS{Girl cut from a different cloth} I loved the concept of Ava trying to figure out not only her identity, but also her sexuality. For some teenagers, these might be one and the same and quite obvious, but I think Ava represents those in-betweeners who feel alone in their indecision and uncertainties. Is she still a feminist if she likes the color pink? How can she crush on a boy when she is involved with a girl? Can two girls be friends if one of them is a lesbian? Is it too late to change your mind and/or change teams? Lili Wilkinson treads carefully and thoughtfully as the teenagers try to figure out themselves as well as each other in this whole crazy mess we fondly label as “high school.”{You eat, sleep, and breathe tech} There are no words to explain why I have such high regards to theater techies. I never really buried myself into the gritty underbelly of theater since it definitely required more commitment than I could handle in high school, but I could feel its allure. Set changes are the BEST. THING. EVER! to watch. In pink, I loved the cranky old stage manager, the geeky banter and random “would you rather” questions, and can I get a shout-out to Boys from the Dwarf? These were my people, and I always love watching the main character fall in love with them too. pink is a homage to techies out there, and I loved every moment of it!{Think PINK} This color pops up a lot in this book, and I love how the ending comes together for Ava, her girlfriend, and her classmates. The story begins with a pink sweater of incredible softness – what Ava deems as “normal” clothes and not the black chicness that her parents and girlfriend prefer. As a former pink-hater, I too can appreciate Ava’s embrace of the pink. Sure, it may be considered the color of girly power, but in the end it is just a color – and if we want to wear said color, it does not necessarily lead to simpering or emotional trainwrecks. In this book, pink becomes Ava’s trademark – it may have started out as a way to feel normal, but pink is the color that makes her happy inside.THE BAD BITS{Nothing} If there were any bad bits to this story, Lili Wilkinson just tickled me pink with everything else that I don’t remember them. Maybe that the ending tied together a little too perfectly? But, honestly, I wouldn’t have imagined it any other way.THE OVERALLWhy did I wait so long to have my socks rocked by pink? I am not sure, but I am hoping that YOU do not waste any more time! The characters are far from perfect, but together they paint such a heartfelt and honest picture of the confusion everyone goes through in life. I laughed a lot, cried some, and enjoyed the entirety of pink – and when I reached the last page, I sighed with such satisfaction for a story well done!
    • 3/5
      In a society that encourages children, teens, and adults alike to be unique and to express their individuality, Lily Wilkinson's Pink asks: What if I want to fit in? What if I like what everyone else is doing? I first read Pink last year when I won a copy of the book in a writing challenge and enjoyed reading about Ava's story about becoming herself in a very un-radical fashion that would receive disapproval from her parents and old girlfriend.While I appreciate characters strong enough to break away from, say, a brainwashed society, I appreciate books that look into not-so-well-explored topics like 'what if someone doesn't want to be a radical?' In this case, I think it takes a heck of a lot more courage to be who you want to be. It is easy to buy black clothes and act disinterested in society when you want to rebel against everyone else, but it is much harder to try and conform to society when your parents are into radical politics and everyone else, especially said parents, expects you to be the same. What I love most about this book is the message that conformity doesn't happen with just the 'in' crowd; it happens to someone belonging to a group of radicals. It happens to Ava, a former radical and lesbian who decides to wear pink and be straight.While she isn't a total conformist, Ava is quite demure compared to her parents. In fact, it is easier for Ava to see her ex-girlfriend as someone belonging her to household than herself, and she doesn't know what to expect of herself, other than the fact that she wants to wear the color pink. However, Ava lacks the courage to wear pink in front of her parents, and she gets a girlfriend because she wants to be like Chloe (her ex) and it is what her parents expect of her in spite of their constant encouragement for Ava to be herself.It is at Billy Hughes School for Academic Excellence, away from her parents and ex-girlfriend, that Ava finally finds the courage to try new things. Only, it's easier said than done to try and be herself. Ava makes her fair share of mistakes while trying to fit in for the first time. After having been her parents' little radical for so long, she feels the need to swing to the other extreme and conform to the 'in' crowd before she finally realizes that all she really needed to do was be true to her heart. Pink is a heartwarming and very realistic story about a girl attempting to express her true self for the first time.
    • 3/5
      Ava wants to change the way she's living her life. She's generally happy with her relationship with Chloe but feels like she's not able to be her normal self - a girl who likes pink instead of black and wants to go to prom with her boyfriend. She wants to fit in. She changes schools in order to unveil her new identity in a safe place. But she's having a hard time keeping her two lives separate. Like any teenager, Ava makes mistakes that jeopardize her friendships, but in the end redeems herself and finds a way to feel comfortable with ambiguity.
    • 4/5
      PINK, by Lili Wilkinson, is a journey of teenage proportions that explores the self-doubt of one girl who has yet to figure out where she belongs. Ava is a wicked intelligent girl who is not challenged enough academically at her school. One thing holding her back is her radical girlfriend who she absolutely adores. But being in that school and with Chloe doesn't feel right to Ava and she wants more of a stereotypical girly life with pink clothes and a boyfriend. Her balancing act with her old life and her new one gives her more insight to herself then she could have ever imagined.The cover originally drew me to this book. I mean how awesome is it? But inside the book is where the awesomeness lies. Wilkinson created a cast of amazing characters. Each character had layers upon layers that kept me reading more. The stage crew kids were my favorite. As a theater geek, I was in heaven. The 'Screws' (as they called themselves) were a mish-mash of different kids with their love for being backstage. In a high school setting, I think this group is more accepting of unusual talents and intelligence that other groups can't handle.Ava was extremely clueless to the world around her. She molded herself to fit into where others saw her. When she was around Chloe she was radical and sarcastic. When she was around Billy Hughes peers she was whatever they needed her to be. In the grand scheme of things, she actually belonged to the Screws even when she thought they were losers. These kids pulled the real Ava out from her hidden layers and made her think about her choices.The relationship dynamics were intricate. Ava's relationship with Chloe was always on thin ice with Ava (I think) caring more for Chloe than she did for Ava. Ava and Ethan's relationship boggled my mind from the beginning. She was set up to 'get with' Ethan. Of course he was the popular, gorgeous guy, which made Ava want him even more. And then there was Sam, one of the Screws. He was not the typical hot, popular guy. But since I am a total fan of gingers, I was smitten. He was the most 'real' with her which made him even more likable.Overall, this book has everything a young adult contemporary book should have. Drama, geeks, self-doubt, self-discovery, and an amazing three-dimentional cast of characters that will make you laugh and cry. I look forward to more from this amazingly talented author.
    • 5/5
      Reading Level: Grades 7+What does pink mean to you? Does it mean a little girl’s bedroom, wallpapered with ponies, princesses, ballerinas and unicorns? A color occasionally featured in your wardrobe? A bonafide, lip-glossed, perfect 'Plastic' a la Mean Girls? Or is pink a color you hate with every dark black fiber of your being?For Ava, pink is a secret. Pink is the color, the person, that she wants to become – a girl who likes color instead of cloaking herself in black, hiding behind the monochrome lipstick and hair matched perfectly with black, black, black and more black clothing. Ava and her longtime girlfriend, Chloe, have been a dark duo for most of high school; Ava has not had a problem with that at all. At least not until now.Ava wants to explore her pink, preppy side, but she’s afraid of Chloe’s feminist, antiestablishment and anti…pretty much everything, except Ava and her freethinking parents. What’s more, Ava isn’t 100% sure that she’s a lesbian anymore. It isn’t that she doesn’t love Chloe, or that she doesn’t like girls anymore; she just wonders what it’s like playing for the other team. But in order to explore those desires, she would have to leave Chloe, something Ava isn’t ready to do. So rather than confront Chloe about her identity-altering questions, Ava applies to a new school for the next school year – Billy Hughes.Before her first day at Billy Hughes, Ava spends hours at the hairdresser stripping years of black dye out of her hair. She prepares her first day outfit – a pink cashmere sweater previously hidden away in the very bottom of her closet. Everything is ready for her new life as a pink.Everything goes perfectly on Ava’s first day – Alexis, obviously one of the most popular girls in school, invites Ava to her lunch table, and within just a few bites, Ava’s future in the school as a popular girl (a Pastel, in this novel) is secured. All she needs to do now is keep up her façade as a sort-of-Goth with Chloe, and gain a part in the school play with Alexis, Ella-Grace, and Vivian.When she bombs her audition, Ava joins stage crew, in the hopes that she’ll still be able to hang out with Ethan, the hot guy Alexis is trying to set her up with. (I mean really, who better to test one’s sexuality with than a super-hot theater guy named Ethan?) But as you no doubt have already guessed, Ava’s lies begin to snowball – and fast.If you liked Pink, try reading these other books about:Girls who lie about themselves:Ten Things I Hate About Me by Randa Abdel-FattahBoy Proof by Cecil CastelluciGirls struggling with their own sexuality:Annie on my Mind by Nancy GardenEmpress of the World by Sara Ryan
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this one. The beginning reminded me a bit of the Shopaholics series-it had the same humor. Ava would often find herself in embarassing situations, and since I am so sensitive to a character's humiliation, I found myself cringing a lot in empathy. I thought the characters were great, especially Sam and Jules. I wish I had had friends like that in high school, who throw around different bits of trivia and go out on those awesome missions (seriously, how fun would it be to sail a couch down a river?) and go to one of those 24-hour sci-fi movie marathons. It's geeky, but it sounds so fun. The ending was nice. Everything wasn't wrapped up in a nice pink bow (ha, ha) but it was satisfying and realistic. Ava is still trying to understand who she is at the end, but she has a better handle on her life and where she wants to be.**This was a review copy
    • 5/5
      Smart and pink-loving Ava Simpson wants a chance to be normal. So she leaves behind her girlfriend, the cool and sophisticated Chloe, for a new school, and eagerly dives into a new life filled with girly clothing, challenging academics, hanging out with the “Pastels,” and crushing on a hot boy.But what is normal, anyway? And, more importantly, who is Ava? When Ava joins the stage crew and befriends a quirky group of geeks, she feels torn between Chloe, the Pastels, and these “Screws.” But juggling all these different identities is not easy, and Ava has to figure out who she is before she loses everyone.THAT’S IT. Upon my college graduation this May, I am packing up my worldly possessions and moving to Australia, land of infinite YA talent. I have been fortunate enough to read a number of wonderful Aussie YA authors—Cath Crowley, Kathy Charles, and Kristy Eagar—but Lili Wilkinson’s PINK raised in me the rare and wonderful feeling of wanting to walk up to everyone I see and go, “This book. Oh my word. It’s…words fail me in describing its awesome. READ IT.” I’m going to equate this feeling to the one I got when I finished Robin Brande’s Fat Cat, still one of my favorite books ever, and then gushed endlessly about it for years and years and tell people repeatedly that they need to read it.So. *breath* Let’s begin to explain why PINK is the Holy Grail of YA Contemporary Awesome, at least probably for those who share my taste in contemporary fiction. First of all, it is important to note that this is the most elegantly casual portrayal of LGBT teens I have encountered in YA. “Elegantly casual” sounds like an oxymoron, but what I mean by that is that it is a lovely realistic presentation of the ambiguities of teen sexuality. Lili Wilkinson doesn’t try to fit Ava and the other characters into character types in LGBT fiction that have been done before. Instead, they are simply allowed to…exist as they are, and it’s not a big freaking deal. David Levithan didn’t quite do it for me with his utopian romance Boy Meets Boy, but I am enamored by PINK’s skillful and intelligent handling of sexual orientation and identity.Speaking of intelligence, PINK has the type of smartness that will appeal to everyone, regardless of your IQ level. Ava and the Screw kids are, without a doubt, nerds—specifically of the sci-fi geek kind. This means that they constantly engage in the most entertaining of conversations regarding the strangest and most obscure topics everywhere. There’s nothing like using one’s excessive brainpower for nerdy humor, and as someone who goes to a nerdy-cool college, I adored the banter. The Screw kids are weird, but they’re cool-weird, and best of all, each of the five has his or her own distinct personality.PINK has all of the essentials that I live in a contemporary novel: a strong-voiced protagonist who is still in the process of growing, wit, full characterization. Not to mention some delectable extras: the sci-fi geek details, musical theatre (!), a cute boy, and memorable side characters. Without a doubt, PINK is going on my favorites shelf, and I eagerly look forward to the next time I reread it, so that I can experience the joy of this wonderfully well-written book all over again.
    • 4/5
      Summary: Ava is an emo-goth lesbian who secretly wants to wear pink cashmere sweaters. When she gets the chance to reinvent herself by transferring to a preppy high school, Ava goes all out. But she’s still living a double life—pretending to be popular and glitzy with her new friends, and telling her girlfriend it’s all an act. Which girl is Ava, really? And how long before her two worlds collide, resulting in total chaos!? My thoughts: Pink is an interesting insight into the confusion of identity. Ava isn’t sure who she really is—she loves her girlfriend, but wants to kiss boys; she tells herself she’s a hardcore feminist when she really wouldn’t mind being objectified at all. I really enjoyed the character development that went into Ava’s self-discovery, and Lili Wilkinson did an excellent job of making her character’s struggle feel realistic. Ava wasn’t a particularly lovable character, but her bad choices and selfish personality made her believable. I found myself shaking my head at some of Ava’s actions, but without them the story wouldn’t have been near as effective. The characters that stood out the most to me were Ava’s stage crew buddies. They were hilarious, intelligent, and just a blast to read about! I couldn’t get enough of their banter. I would like a group of friends like this, please! All in all, I really enjoyed Pink. It has a great cast of minor characters, a foray into the world of theater, and a really great subject matter. I found it to be extremely fun, and despite some of the crazy situations that Ava got into, I couldn’t put the book down. Pink is a hilarious, fast read that will make any reader recall what his or her own experiences with self-discovery were. And to readers who are just beginning their journey? Pink will definitely help make the trip that much easier.
    • 4/5
      Pink was not at all what I though it would be, but in a good way. I wasn't really sure what to expect from it, because it's not my usual type of book, but I'm glad to say that I did quite enjoy it!Pink deals with alot of great themes that I think that so many people, teens and young adults in particular, can relate too. It deals with losing friendships, gaining friendships, relationships, discovering one's sexuality, and just finding one's self in general (I'm sorry if that sounded corny, but it's true!), which are all things that everyone experiences in their life, especially during their teenaged years when they are really just starting to learn who they are. When I first started reading Pink, I kind of found the main character, Ava, to be a little shallow. All that she wanted to be was a "normal" girl who liked boys, wore pink (hence the title), and was popular. She was so worried about what her girlfriend would think about her that she would act completely different when she was with her, she really wasn't being herself. As the story went on, my opinion of her really started to change. She really began to realize that she couldn't be what her girlfriend wanted her to be or the cookie-cutter girl that she wanted herself to be because she started to realize that she was neither of those things. She still wasn't quite sure who exactly she was, but she realized that she needed to stop forcing herself to be something else and that she was happiest when she was just being herself.Ava's sexuality was something else that she struggled with. She'd always thought that she was a lesbian, and she and her girlfriend, Chloe, had been together for a couple of years, but she really starts to become confused when she feels attracted to boys. Through the course of the book, Ava tries to decipher her feelings and decide whether she is really a lesbian or if she is straight, and what I really liked about this book was that, just like in real life, she never really gets an answer to whether she is straight or gay. Finally though, in the end, she realizes that she may never truely know, and that she just needs to do what she feels is right when it comes to love. I thought that that was a really good message and I was really glad that Ava was able to realize it. An important factor in Ava really discovering herself was a group of kids called the "screws" or the stage crew kids. This group of people were just so comfortable being who they all were, didn't care what anyone thought about them, and as Ava began to spend time with them and really get to know them, they ended up having a huge effect on her. I don't think that Ava would have been able to grow so much over the course of the book if it hadn't been for this group of kids. Overall, I think that Pink has a ton of great themes and messages in it, although there are some not so great ones mixed in there too. It really shows us that we should just be ourselves and not try to be something else. Although I did definitly enjoy Pink, it's not my usual type of read and I probably would have enjoyed it even more were I a bigger fan of the genre. Lili Wilkinson's writing was pretty good, although because she is an Australian author, there were some (what I assume were slang) words, that were unfamiliar to me. You may also need a dictionary while reading this book because some of the "screws" had very impressive vocabularies! I know that I was left scratching my head at some of things that they said!If Pink seems like the type of book that you usually like to read, I would say go for it, as I'm sure you'll enjoy it! If you, like me, are mostly interested in paranormal books, and arn't sure if Pink is really something that you'll like, I would definitly think about giving it a shot!I hope that you enjoyed my review of Pink by Lili Wilkinson!
    • 5/5
      Ava changes schools because she feels like she has been conforming to her girlfriend's idea of what she should be like, and wants to try other things: wearing pink, auditioning for the school musical, and maybe even liking boys. She tries to be like the perfect, popular, pastel-wearing girls who befriend her on her first day of school, but eventually finds that conforming to them is just as restrictive to her real self as conforming to her girlfriend's image had been. When she doesn't make the cut for the school musical and falls in with the stage crew, a group of happy misfits who slowly accept her into their ranks, she starts realizing that discovering who she really is, is more complex than she could have imagined. This, of course, does not stop her from trying her hand at "helping" the other members of the stage crew find happiness and fulfillment, which (of course) backfires horrendously.Pink has a lot of great humor mixed in with the serious stuff, and it is a fast and gripping read. Fans of YA realistic fiction a la John Green and Maureen Johnson should definitely be on the lookout for this one!
    • 3/5
      Ava is a teenager trying to please everyone, by the grades she gets, the clothes she wears, even the food she eats. But is this really what she wants? Or who she is?Ava isn't so sure, at least not anymore. She isn't sure about a lot of things in her life, but one thing she is sure about is that it's time for a change; new friends, new experiences, a new school, and maybe even a new Ava. But will she be able to hold on to her old life while creating a new one?Confused and on a mission to find herself, to find who she really is, Ava strives to reinvent herself. All she wanted was to be normal, be like everyone else and to fit in, to belong. But was this too much to ask; was she so different that she couldn't fit in anywhere? and has she reinvented herself so much that instead of finding herself, she has lost who she is in a web of new clothes and lies? Or is it possible that through all the secrets shared and mistakes made that Ava is able to learn about life, love and herself.This book is a great read for any teenager girl. It is both clever and humorous, and at times embarrassingly honest. It deals with the question of identity and show its alright to be unsure; that life is never simple and neat, but messy and screwed up. It is not afraid to show the important issues faced by teens; that of family, friendships, relationships, sexuality, peer pressure, drugs and the need for acceptance.