BUDDY LOVE: Now on Video

Buddy has fairly ordinary problems: a family that to him seems boring, an older sister who is boy-obsessed and snotty, one friend he has betrayed and another he follows slavishly. When given a school assignment to find out about his past and his family's history, he does so with their newly acquired video camera, beginning a chain of discoveries that help him to see what's really important in life. Cooper (Stupid Cupid, p. 223, etc.) avoids laying the morals on too thick, and what emerges is a likable story with enough familiar events to keep young readers hooked, as well as to get them thinking about their own lives. Like the view through Buddy's camera, this novel makes the everyday interesting; Cooper's ear for the dialogue of early adolescents and her understanding of their problems keeps things entertaining.