by Jaclyn Moriarty
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Product Description
The Ashbury-Brookfield pen pal program is designed to bring together the two rival schools in a spirit of harmony and "the Joy of the Envelope." But when Cassie, Lydia, and Emily send their first letters to Matthew, Charlie, and Sebastian, things don't go quite as planned. What starts out as a simple letter exchange soon leads to secret missions, false alarms, lock picking, mistaken identities, and an all-out war between the schools--not to mention some really excellent kissing.
Amazon.com Review
Popular Aussie writer Jaclyn Moriarty, author of the smash debut, Feeling Sorry for Celia avoids the notorious sophomore slump with this bouncy epistolary follow-up that is brimming with self-confidence and charm. In The Year of Secret Assignments, a tenth grade English teacher attempts to unite feuding schools by launching a pen-pal project. Best friends Cassie, Emily and Lydia initiate the correspondence, and are answered by Matthew, Charlie and Seb. Emily and Lydia are more than pleased with their matches, but quiet Cassie has a frightening experience with Matthew. When Lydia and Emily discover that Matthew has threatened their fragile friend, the Ashbury girls close ranks, declaring an all-out war on the Brookfield boys. Soon, the couples are caught up in everything from car-jacking and lock-picking, to undercover spying and identity theft. Moriarty’s captivating comedy of manners reads like a breezy 21st century version of Jane Austen--with no end of ridiculous misunderstandings, angst-ridden speeches, and heartfelt make-ups. Female teen fans of Ann Brasheres' The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Megan McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts will waste no time swapping copies of The Year of Secret Assignments, with all their best buds. (Ages 12 and up) --Jennifer Hubert
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 It's not a mailbox it's a fire alarm, 2010-01-17
Ashbury private school students Emily, Lydia and Cassie, are less than thrilled about having to write to the rival Brookfield high school. Despite this fact, all three of them accept their English assignment and write. Two of them get back normal letters, but Cassie gets a violent pen pal. She keeps writing to him and eventually it seems that he has lightened up. Meanwhile Lydia and Cass end up getting quite a bit closer with their pen pals, even breaking some rules to help them out.
This story written through letters and diary entries is a fun little read. I really enjoy it when novels are written in a different format from usual. This book was funny at some points and others made you roll your eyes. It was annoying yet realistic all of Emily misspellings and miswords (it's catching) in her letters. After reading A Secret Year I saw this book about a year of secret assignments and thought "neat". I'm glad I read this and I will be reading her other novels as soon as I can. It was a really fun read, that kept you guessing. It does have strong language but that's about as bad as it gets, although at some points I thought things were going to get graphic. I really enjoyed how clever and fun all of the characters were and how much energy they seemed to have. This is one of those oldies but goodies, I recommend picking it up for a semi-exciting laugh.
First Line:
"Quick! Before you read another word, write your FULL name in every box on this page!"
Favorite Line:
"4) It is clear that you are a person who likes Christina, and (in my professional opinion) you are ready to steal any girl from anybody."
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
An enjoyable YA book, 2010-01-06
I came across the name of this Australian writer on E. Lockhart's website. If I remember it right, she named Jaclyn Moriarty as an inspiration for the format of her own Ruby books. Of course, being as huge of E. Lockhart's as I am, I simply had to eventually check out Moriarty.
"The Year of Secret Assignments" is a book written entirely in the form of letters, notes, e-mail messages, etc. I love this format and it definitely makes the book one easy, quick and entertaining read. The story itself is pretty good too - three best girl friends are forced into correspondence with boys from a rival school. Misunderstandings, romance, fights, and adventures follow.
The book is marketed as a humorous story, but I honestly didn't find it as funny as, for instance, hilarious Georgia Nicolson books by Louise Rennison. In fact, whatever was supposed to be funny, seemed a bit weird to me, especially in the beginning of the book. Maybe I simply don't get Australian humor? However, as the book progressed and serious themes of friendship, trust, and loss came into play, I started enjoying the book much more and couldn't put it down until the big "mystery" was finally solved.
Overall, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. It was a nice combination of silly teenage romance, mystery, and drama. It certainly didn't change my world, but it was a nice departure from angsty paranormal YA romances I've been reading too much of lately. I will definitely give the author another try.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 LOVED it, 2009-07-19
I really didn't have any expectations going into this one. I heard it was good, but I wasn't expecting to be blown away by its sheer awesome and smartness. The book is written entirely in letters, diary entries, bulletins and with something called the Notebook. I didn't think this was going to work out very well since the letters and stuff are all from different points of views- a total of 8 characters tell the story at one point or another, I believe. But I was happy that having all the different points of view allowed me to see each character from a bunch of perspectives to see what they are like to everyone else. This really helped make them believable characters since the characters weren't looked at the same way by everyone, including the character being observed. Seeing what others thought of a character made it easier for me to perceive the character in my own way, like I was actually a character in the book watching the person.
In the beginning, the characters' voices were very similar and not very distinguishable. They were all most sarcastic and funny, but as time went on and the characters revealed all their feelings and problems, they gained their own voices and identities.
It was also interesting to only hear about the events going on instead of seeing them as they happened. The events were recollected by all the narrators and they commented on the events, which really helped make things more amusing than they already were, since almost all the characters were funny.
So yeah, I really loved this one. It starts out really light, but soon grows a little more dramatic (but still light and smart) with a Big Reveal that occurs. The drama definitely made me want to keep reading the book, even though I kind of predicted what happened.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Feedback from a middle-school mentor, 2009-04-10
Just want to underscore everything written by "Middle School Teacher" back in August of 2005. This book is blazingly witty in a manner that cannot help but be irresistible to MS and HS readers. The 6th grader I mentor selected it for us to read together, and her delight in it was absolutely palpable. Part of this is because she's a really gifted young writer herself, and the book has some great messages in it that help young writers enjoy writing more and liven it up so that others like to read their writing..the fact that it's wrapped up in a very hiply sarcastic, benevolently disrespectful, envelope-pushing tone makes the serious tips about writing go down with joy. But as "Middle School Teacher" cautioned, this one pushes the edges a lot further than some teachers or parents would like for younger readers, not just in language, but in the flippant way it presents certain elements of youth and adult drug use, family dysfunctions, etc. Again, this is a great read for older kids, but parents and teachers of a more conservative bent might want to check it out first.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
beautiful, 2009-04-03
I bought this book when I was in fifth grade. I have always loved reading, but I'm ashamed to say that I bought it (with the last of my giftcard $) based on the smiley face on the cover. I BOUGHT IT BASED ON ITS COVER.
This is a wonderful book with real characters that grow and that you become attached to more and more as the story moves along. The writing format is different from the normal YA 1st person in that it is told through things that are actually written by the characters as the story goes along. The conflict got me completely hooked, and I'm still hooked 5 years later.
I hope that some others in my generation turn to this book instead of the fluffy Twilight series or its counterparts.
I've noticed that a lot of people have found fault with the language, but I think this adds depth--what teenagers these days use completely 'clean' vocabulary?
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