DEFINITELY NOT SEXY

by Jane Sutton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 1, 1988

Ninth-grader Diana sees the world divided into Sexies and Smarts; and since she herself is Definitely Not Sexy, she experiments with changing her image--but her forays are so timid that real rebellious teen-agers will have little patience with her: she tries pot at a party, but decides she doesn't like drugs because they make her giggle; when her first experiment with make-up is a disaster, she decides not to wear it anymore; she asks her drunk friend Jimmy to introduce her to sex by going only ""part way,"" and manages to get slightly felt up without either consequences or moral conclusions--she doesn't even get her heart broken. While Sutton captures the klutziness and immaturity of adolescence, she misses the depression and the pain. Moreover, Diana's sense of humor is bothersome: her continual sarcastic joking seldom hits its mark, and her contempt for her overweight parents is obnoxious. And though the novel attempts currency by frequent discussion of drugs and sex, it's plagued with anachronisms typified by friend Heidi's remark: ""You don't want to end up with AIDS. And you don't want to get a rep."" Not con. vincing.

Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1988

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 154

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1988

Categories: CHILDREN'S