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WORK TITLE: Folded Notes from High School
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1985
WEBSITE: https://www.borentown.com/
CITY: Los Angeles
STATE: CA
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1985.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and actor. Scriptwriter for television programs on networks such as NBC, ABC, FX, E!, Nickelodeon, and Disney. Actor in films and television series, including Momma’s Man and How I Met Your Mother. Don’t Steal This Morning Show, cocreator and cohost (with Jessica Golden). Former writer of story arcs for soap opera All My Children.
WRITINGS
Scriptwriter for television series, including Melissa and Joey, See Dad Run, and Sofia the First. Screenwriter of films, including The Switch Witch and Potus McGotus, both sold to the Disney Channel.
SIDELIGHTS
Matt Boren is a writer, novelist, and television writer. He was worked in the television industry for many years, and “got his start writing story arcs for All My Children,” a popular daytime drama, noted a writer on the Matt Boren website. He sold his first pilot, Dirtbags, to Fox, and since then has sold television shows to major networks such as NBC, ABC, E!, FX, Disney, and Nickelodeon. He has written more than eighty-five scripts for programs such as Melissa and Joey, See Dad Run, and Sofia the First, the Matt Boren website writer reported.
Boren has been successful as a film scriptwriter and developer, having sold the movie Switch Witch and a half-hour program, Potus McGotus, to the Disney Channel. He is developing a television series, Miss Joy, which is based on the life of a friend who has multiple sclerosis, the Matt Boren website writer noted.
In addition to his work in scriptwriting, has been an actor in both film and television, including the movie Momma’s Man and the TV series How I Met Your Mother, where he plays the character Stuart. He is also the cohost and cocreator of the online morning talk show Don’t Steal This Morning Show. Boren is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
Folded Notes from High School is Boren’s debut novel. “Written entirely in notes passed between students, this ’90s-era epistolary novel starts out light and fluffy,” commented Reinhardt Suarez in Booklist. At South High School, Tara Murphy is the undisputed “queen bee” of the social scene. Now a senior, she has created exactly the type of school life she wants. She has a cool and popular athlete boyfriend, the opportunity to attend New York University to study acting, and a deliberately crafted reputation that keeps her at the top of the social heap. In many ways, she feels she’s coasting through her final year of school, enjoying her status and acting in as many plays as possible to get more experience and increase her chances of getting into NYU. Her complacency is upset, however, when a new student, freshman Matt Bloom, manages to win the lead role in the school’s production of Grease.
As the novel progresses, Tara’s overblown personality and need for control become more problematic, both for herself and the students around her. Her carefully constructed network begins to fall apart and setbacks plague her. Her boyfriend is caught cheating, her best friend finds a new main pal, and her status at the top of the hierarchy begins to waver. In the context of the notes written and hidden by Tara and others, the reality of life at South High becomes more apparent, and this time, it looks like it’s Tara who’ll suffer from a major dose of reality. She is determined, however, to get what she wants, no matter what it takes or who has to be harmed in the process.
The story is told, as noted by the title, in diverse notes and messages written by the characters. The notes come from different points of view and, sometimes subtly, convey the nature of the students’ lives at South High School. Readers get the chance to see how young people communicated in the relatively restricted environment of high school in the days before smartphones, Facebook, and Snapchat.
“Folded Notes from High School captures the almost cringe-worthy nostalgia that once dominated the elementary and high schools halls,” commented a reviewer on the website Hypable. School Library Journal writer Jennifer Miskec remarked: “This tale about Tara’s over-the-top rise and demise has a playful retro pop culture context.” Tara will make readers “smile with her conniving antics, sarcastic wit, and tremendous resiliency,” commented a Publishers Weekly writer. Miskec concluded that readers are going to “love to hate the talented and terrible Tara.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, March 1, 2018, Reinhardt Suarez, review of Folded Notes from High School, p. 49.
Publishers Weekly, January 29, 2018, review of Folded Notes from High School, p. 190.
School Library Journal, February, 2018, Jennifer Miskec, review of Folded Notes from High School, p. 98.
ONLINE
Hypable, https://www.hypable.com/ (June 20, 2018), review of Folded Notes from High School.
Matt Boren website, http://www.borentown.com (July 20, 2018).
Run Spot Run, http://www.runspotrun.com/ (April 28, 2018), Laura Shank, review of Folded Notes from High School.
Matt Boren, a writer and actor, is a graduate of NYU’S Tisch School of The Arts. He got his start writing story arcs for All My Children. From there, Boren went on to sell his first pilot, Dirtbags, to FOX. That pilot was greenlit and thus began Boren’s career in television. He has gone on to sell shows to NBC, ABC, FX, E!, Disney and Nickelodeon. Boren has written on over eighty-five episodes of television including Melissa and Joey, See Dad Run and Sofia The First. Boren has acted in many projects in both film and television including the lead role in the Sundance darling, Momma’s Man and for nine seasons as Stuart on How I Met Your Mother. Boren recently sold both his movieThe Switch Witch and half hour Potus McGotus to Disney Channel. Boren is currently developing the series Miss Joy, based on a true story about his friend who has MS - Jamie Lynn Sigler is attached to star. Along with Jessica Golden, Boren is the co-creator and co-host of, Don’t Steal This Morning Show, an online morning talk show which was recently re-booted. Folded Notes from High School (Penguin/Razorbill) is Boren’s first novel.
Matt Boren has written on over eighty-five episodes of television for Melissa and Joey, See Dad Run, Sofia the First, among others. Boren has acted in many projects in both film and television, including for nine seasons as Stuart on How I Met Your Mother. He lives in Los Angeles, CA, with his family. Folded Notes from High School is his first novel. Follow him on Twitter @Borentown
Folded Notes from High School
Reinhardt Suarez
Booklist. 114.13 (Mar. 1, 2018): p49.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Folded Notes from High School. By Matt Boren. Apr. 2018. 368p. Razorbill, $17.99 (9780451478207). Gr. 9-12.
In the age before Snapchat and Instagram, Tara Murphy rules South High's social scene armed with only her pen and strategically hidden notes. By senior year, she has attained everything she wanted--a popular boyfriend, big-city college prospects, and a ruthlessly groomed reputation. This changes when freshman Matt Bloom upsets her delicately constructed hierarchy by winning the lead in South High's production of Grease. What follows is a manipulative game to exert control over Matt--along with everyone else, friend and enemy alike. Written entirely in notes passed between students, this '90s-era epistolary novel starts out light and fluffy. It grows darker, however, as Taras megalomania increases. Through multiple points of view, Boren slowly unveils the social fabric of South High, leaving subtle clues about events that happen off the page. The structure succeeds admirably at creating a narrative that is funny and disturbing. There are references to characters having sex, though nothing graphic is depicted. This is a great read for slightly older teens who want a glimpse into the increasingly distant--though not so different--past.--Reinhardt Suarez
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Suarez, Reinhardt. "Folded Notes from High School." Booklist, 1 Mar. 2018, p. 49. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A532250944/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=dbe62530. Accessed 28 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A532250944
Folded Notes from High School
Publishers Weekly. 265.5 (Jan. 29, 2018): p190.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Folded Notes from High School
Matt Boren. Razorbill, $17.99 (368p)
ISBN 978-0-451-47820-7
The year is 1991, when teens didn't communicate through texts but through handwritten notes stuffed into lockers, desks, and mailboxes. In a novel that captures the lingo, fads, and teenage preoccupations of the period, actor and TV writer Boren makes a charismatic debut as he traces the ups and downs of Tara Maureen Murphy's life through notes exchanged between friends and enemies. Although Tara is dying to get out of her "two-bit town" and study acting at NYU, she intends to enjoy her senior year, getting star roles in the school's plays, being half of a "supercouple" with her hockey-player boyfriend, and reuniting with her best friend, who has been away for the summer. Things don't go as she expects. Tara's year is full of drama, but most of it occurs outside the theater. A brash, egotistical heroine determined to get what she wants at any cost, Tara suffers setbacks at every turn. Even if she doesn't win readers' hearts, she will make them smile with her conniving antics, sarcastic wit, and tremendous resiliency. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Folded Notes from High School." Publishers Weekly, 29 Jan. 2018, p. 190. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526116598/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=32b94f70. Accessed 28 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A526116598
BOREN, Matt. Folded Notes from High School
Jennifer Miskec
School Library Journal. 64.2 (Feb. 2018): p98.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
BOREN, Matt. Folded Notes from High School. 404p. Penguin/Razorbill. Apr. 2018. Tr $17.99. ISBN 9780451478207.
Gr 9 Up--Tara is beautiful, talented, and popular. She only dates the hottest guys at school, and her best friends are the kinds of girls who get voted Best Dressed and Most Likely to Succeed. She is up for the lead in all of the school plays. She is also benevolent when it suits her, but is just as likely to crush a classmate if crossed. In other words, Tara is a mean girl; talented and driven but selfish and manipulative, too, and she's desperate for her senior year to be perfect. But in this narrative, the leading lady's supporting cast stops playing their parts. Tara's hot, hockey-playing boyfriend gets caught cheating, her best friend finds a new gal pal, and the freshman she takes under her wing finds his own way into the inner circle. Set during the pre-cell phone 1991-1992 school year and told via a series of intricately folded notes passed through the school day, stuffed into lockers, and snuck into backpacks, this tale about Tara's over-the-top rise and demise has a playful retro pop culture context. A found letter, sent from Tara to Matt, the freshman upstart, after she has left for college, promises a continuation of the series. VERDICT A campy romp through early 90s culture and slang. Like early-season Rachel on the TV show Glee, readers will love to hate the talented and terrible Tara.--Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Miskec, Jennifer. "BOREN, Matt. Folded Notes from High School." School Library Journal, Feb. 2018, p. 98. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A526734103/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e7928f34. Accessed 28 May 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A526734103
‘Folded Notes from High School’ review: A star-studded audiobook ripe with cringe-worthy nostalgia
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Folded Notes from High School by Matt Boren gives readers of a new generation an inside look at the halls of high school before cell phones.
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Penguin Audio | Goodreads
About ‘Folded Notes From High School’
The folded notes collected for this book represent correspondence surrounding one Tara Maureen Murphy, senior at South High c. 1991-1992.
So begins the audiobook narration of Folded Notes from High School by Matt Boren. Told through a series of notes written, carefully folded, and discretely unfolded in the halls of South High, the voices capture the drama of senior year of high school. With graduation looming, escaping the confines of the bubble of life in your hometown tests friendships, relationships, and perceptions of both.
Told through the overarching narrative of the final musical of Tara Murphy’s tenure at South High, characters old and new weave their stories with hers.
The cast for Folded Notes includes — Christina Applegate, as the Narrator, Taylor Spreitler, as Tara, Ramy Youssef, as Matt, Ryan Newman, as Stef, Selma Blair, as Stacey, Katie Lowes, as Pammy, Rebecca Budig, as Tricia, Meredith Salenger, as Kath, Vicki Davis, as Deena, Adam Shapiro, as Pete, and author Matt Boren, as Christopher.
‘Folded Notes from High School’ audiobook review
“Kids don’t know how to communicate anymore,” is a common phrase thrown around about my generation, and those now born into the text message age. It’s as if the invention of the cell phone replaces the casual conversations at lockers in the high school halls. But if you’re looking to meet up somewhere between classes and don’t pass a friend until hours later, a quick text can solve that problem.
It’s not replacing the way classmates communicate – it is merely advancing it. But something is lost with evolution. For speed and efficiency, the art of carefully crafting the perfect note is gone. Truncated messages get across the same message that a front and back piece of loose leaf tried to relay.
Folded Notes from High School captures the almost cringe-worthy nostalgia that once dominated the elementary and high schools halls. Personally, I grew up on the cusp of the texting evolution. Freshman year, phone in hand, T-89 keyboard at my fingertips, my friends and I still resorted back to the folded routine. You got caught way less than trying to hide your clicking under a desk.
As the characters step in and out of Folded Notes, the story attempts to capture the voices of a multitude of note passers. It missteps largely on the male-dominated scenes, opting for caricatures of the older jock-star boyfriend.
But while the voice at times seems too broad, would a high school senior guy really put that much effort into crafting a note when now that same message could be conveyed in a “K” response? No wonder the truncated language of today opens us up to so much interpretation of a single letter.
The highlight of Folded Notes comes from the fall out of a friendship. The story of two friends, one of whom likely relies more on the security of being locked in a friendship that guarantees not only that you are on the receiving end of a daily note, but that you are a somehow a part of something bigger by association.
It also tackles what happens when the bubble of high school is suddenly popped. What does the world outside of the notes have to offer? What are people, the ones you write about with such certainty in the notes, like off the page? The most powerful communications exist between Tara and her friend Stef, whose summer away brought her back with a fresh perspective. As she grows, and Tara regresses, Folded Notes examines the strain most friendships face in final days of school.
Elsewhere, there are other painful moments riddled with second hand embarrassment. In particular, the nicknames. (Why did we do this?)
But that is what Folded Notes continues to do throughout the entire novel. It captures, and puts on display, the worst bits of nostalgia. The moments where you reflect on the question “why?” Was that role really the defining moment of my life? Why did I need to talk about that teacher like that? And, also, why did I choose to write in this code that I can no longer decrypt?
Scrolling through Facebook memories today, is almost like finding an old folded note. An all caps “THIS JUST MADE MY DAY SO MUCH BETTER,” written in response to a moment where something you did, made someone’s day. But in 2018, as you look back on that post from eight years ago, that good dead escapes you. It was a note meant for you and the person who writing it. However, it does something that you dreaded when you passed something physical in the hall — it became public.
Notes were tucked away in lockers, under textbooks, stuffed in pockets, bags, and folders. If accidentally taken, someone would have to decrypt the secret language within. Much like the aforementioned Facebook post. What did that person do to make someone’s day better? And it begs the question, why not me?
Folded Notes captures all the insecurities that come along with the note passing – “Why am I not on the receiving end?” – and the pressures too – “Am I writing too much?” “Do I sound too needy?”
Folded Notes not only tells a classic high school story, but it does so in a way that makes you feel the situations. Deeply resonate, I urge readers outside of the recommended age group to pick up a copy and relive those moments you’ve spent years learning to forget.
Folded Notes from High School by Matt Boren
by Laura Shank · April 28, 2018
Razorbill, 2018
★★★☆☆
Folded Notes from High School by Matt Boren is a story about teenagers in the early 90’s. Through handwritten note format, the reader follows senior Tara Maureen Murphy, as well as her boyfriend, best friend, rival, and the freshman new kid. Boren captures the melodrama of high school in this fast-paced but shallow story.
Tara is a self proclaimed star and performs in all of the drama productions. At the beginning of the year her boyfriend introduces her to his freshman neighbor, Matt, imploring that she be nice to him. Tara deigns to speak to Matt and finds he longs for a lead role in the fall musical. Tara, a condescending mentor, informs him that freshman don’t get leads. Shocked when he does, Tara eats her words. Although she has the “perfect” jock boyfriend, Tara falls for Matt. Unfortunately, her reputation is far more important than her true feelings, and she stumbles in her attempt to balance the two.
Readers who remember passing folded notes will enjoy the attempted nostalgia although the book can’t fully reflect the intricacies of note passing. Folded Notes from High School misses out on the folding, doodling, and fonts that came with the medium. Due to the format, the chapters are short and pack a lot of information, making the book a fast read. The pacing is great, but the book ends suddenly, leaving the reader with questions.
Tara steers the plot with her drama and schemes. While the reader will find her interesting at first, she becomes one note and predictable. Tara will do anything to get her way no matter the cost and without thinking about the consequences. She is unwilling to acknowledge her failures, even as her narcissism sours her reputation. Further into the book, her back and forth attitude may ultimately lead the reader to wonder if she has an undiagnosed mental illness. Boren crafts a fun read but ultimately creates a shallow character who doesn’t learn.
The supporting characters in Folded Notes have better arcs, although the reader doesn’t get to spend much time with them. They grow up and find their place in the world, even with Tara’s maneuvering. As they distance themselves from her, Tara seems more unstable. Unfortunately, these characters blend together forcing the reader to flip to the end of the chapter to check who wrote each note before reading it.
Folded Notes from High School reads like reality TV, melodramatic and catching, with a nod to the ups and downs of high school. It’s fun, despite the choppy ending. Tara is a shallow and manipulative character, but the reader won’t be able to put the book down wondering what she is going to do next.