THE GIRL WHO INVENTED ROMANCE
By
Kelly Williams is fascinated by romance, but wonders just what it is--and more important, what love is. Are they the same? Her search for answers is complicated by recent turns in her life--she desperately wants a boyfriend, but no boy seems to want her; the love lives of her friends and older brother are troublesome; and her parents' idyllic marriage is going through an uncharacteristically rocky patch. As Valentine's Day approaches, Kelly develops a board game about romance (it sounds like a winner), puzzling out the pieces in her life as she devises appropriate prizes and penalties for the game. A light, familiar story, but Cooney (Don't Blame the Music) has a gift for humor; Kelly and her friends are likable, and readers will easily identify with them. Her parents' troubles are less plausibly defined and the reasons for Mrs. Williams being so childish and jealous are not quite clear, but girls will overlook that in their enjoyment of Kelly's sorting out her own problems.