Customer Reviews: Read 103 more reviews...
 Courtesy of Mother Daughter Book Club.com July 16, 2008
One mom described the book as having a storyline perfect for "an after-school special." It involves a senator's son, a girl from an unconventional household, teen love, a burned-out teacher, death, a horrible secret and facing the consequences of one's actions.
Most of our book club members thought the characters in Driver's Ed were two dimensional, and everyone agreed that both moms in the book were unrealistically portrayed. But we had a good discussion about actions that turn out to have dire consequences even though they seem harmless when you choose to do them. And we all got a chance to talk about our current experiences, with moms weighing in on frightening times in the passenger seat and daughters talking about parents "freaking them out" and making them nervous behind the wheel. It was fun to realize that most of our stories were similar.
I would recommend reading Driver's Ed for the discussion it prompts rather than for the book itself.
 A good book May 13, 2007
This book is realy good. I am about to get my license and it teaches me some stuff.
Drivers ED April 18, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This review on the book Drivers ED, is on the cool events of the book. The author is Caroline B. Cooney, she has written many books such as The Face On The Milk Carton.
The book is about a girl named Remy Marland, and her friends Nickie Buddie, Lark, and Morgan Campell. It takes place in Junior High. They have been planning a sign-stealing trip. Remy wanted the sign Morgan Road. What better than the name of the boy she had a crush on. They didn't know who did it, but some one stole a stop sign, and it would have dire consequences. It is a stunning novel and I think you should read it. Just take my word for it. It is full of suspense and mystery, read it and you will be on the edge of your seat.
From Information Literacy & Technology Class December 22, 2006
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
Driver's Ed is fast paced at the beginning, when a couple teenagers steal a stop sign for fun from a busy intersection. A young woman gets in a car crash at that intersection later that night, and dies because there was no stop sign. Overwhelmed with guilt, they don't know if they should tell the authorities or keep it a secret forever. After the accident, the book becomes slow, and boring. The author only talks about the teenagers' feelings and how they deal with making the choice of admitting to the vandalism. There are also many unneeded characters in the plot, making it complicated and confusing. As it draws closer to the end, the book becomes boring and predictable. The ending is abrupt, and doesn't solve the problems that have been building up throughout the plot. I would not recommend this book to advanced readers.
- Annesha
 A novel with impact - October 28, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a book I read some years ago. I'm reviewing it now because I was thinking about it this morning. And any book that makes you think years after you've read it deserves a review, I think. I don't remember a thing about the structure of the story or the style in which it was written. I do remember feeling a certain distance from the story as I read it. Cooney is a fairly dependable writer; perhaps the distance had to do simply with my own particular taste. Regardless, the book has tremendous impact. If you read the other reviews, you will get the spoilers; I see no need for me to outline the plot here. What I want to discuss is the very effective, very real tension that arises out of what could seem like a very simple decision--a choice kids make, thinking it's going to be funny, thinking that what they do tonight has no connection to anyone else's life, or to their own futures. I have very good kids - I'm not at all worried that they'll do something easily definable as wrong. But I am afraid of their youth and inexperience, which has to result in a fair amount of short-sightedness, and of the level of silliness the best kids can hit when they are out together and egg each other on.
I still remember the horror I felt as this story unfolded. As a mother, way past any such temptations myself, I still became the kids as I read. Cooney creates in the reader that sort of nightmare experience: in your dream, you have done something terrible, something really terrible and your life will never be the same. From the dream, you wake. The impact of this story is that there can be no waking. The terrible thing is there, and will always be there. My reaction to the story still lingers, after all these years. And so I save this book, when so many others make way for the new stuff on the shelves. I would sit a kid down and make him or her read this book if I felt like the lesson needed to be learned - or I would read it to a family out loud. This said, the book is not written in a didactic manner (preachy). The facts are simply laid out. When you read these other reviews, you will find plenty who note that the book is "hard to get into," which, with a writer like Cooney who knows her business, means that the book has some serious things to say and is not simply entertainment. There is a feeling of portent from the beginning. If only more people understood that so many stories in our own lives, if told by a storyteller, would start weeks before the mistake or accident or choice with a feeling of portent and forshadowing.
Read it as a horror novel, if you like. Certainly, that's what it was for me. I still carry with me the imprint of its impact. It is a true cautionary tale. And if reading it can give any kid just a moment's pause before making a stupid choice, then God bless it.
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