Caught between her popular boyfriend, Jesse, and her headstrong twin, Dante, Giovanna (16) is forced to take sides in the upcoming student-council election. Her loyalty to her twin wins out. As if that’s not enough to make her life difficult, Giovanna is still doing community service for a crime involving frogs and her stepmother’s briefcase. She is equally frustrated at home as she tries to figure out why her stepmother makes her life so difficult and yet seems to dote on Dante. Giovanna agrees to go on a string of blind dates in an attempt to get Jesse back, but they culminate in one horrible evening in which Giovanna has to rely on Jesse to rescue her. This somewhat familiar story is given a fresh twist with likable and real characters. Fast-paced and funny, Rallison’s latest will satisfy faithful fans and will encourage new ones to join the fun. (Fiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-399-24617-3
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2007
A legend in her own mind, former New Yorker Mary Elizabeth (“My true name is Lola”) Cep sweeps into her new suburban New Jersey high school and runs smack into a stone wall named Carla Santini: class queen, beautiful, clever, and vicious. In a series of sharp skirmishes, both teenagers display generous quantities of grit and ego, and though Lola beats out Carla for the lead in the school play, she also, thanks to a positive penchant for embellishing the truth, maneuvers herself into a reckless nighttime junket into Manhattan with her mousy friend, Ella. Hours later, the two find their wildest dreams coming true as they accompany a popular, very drunk rock star to a hot post-concert party. Sheldon (Boy Of My Dreams, 1997) gives her fast-talking protagonist a winning supporting cast (led by Ella, who turns out to be unexpectedly levelheaded and loyal in the crunch), a worthy rival and triumphs that are not easily won; readers will cheer the high spots, groan at the low, and applaud Lola in general for her grandly disarming style. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-7636-0822-X
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Candlewick
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999
“On the basis of their own words” Dudevszky wrote first-person accounts of the sad ordeals of several teenagers who are unable to reside with their families. There are reasons—often a list of reasons—the teenagers no longer live at home, and none of them are good. Marco’s father molested his sisters, Brenda’s parents were addicted to alcohol and drugs, Manuela’s father beat her, and Leyla had to escape from Iran for political reasons. The message that trumpets through is how desperately these youngsters, most living in foster or group homes in the Netherlands, need attention and affection. Jerry, a youth home resident, says, “I don’t get homesick at all. I don’t see my parents that much. They don’t come on my birthday. Well, so they don’t. I’m not going to lose sleep over it.” Maarten, 16, who was moved six times in four years, says, “I often felt lonely. Every time you go to another place you’re all on your own again.” Although the book is worthy, the tone is understandably depressing, and after a while the individual stories lose their bite. Readers who have the pertinacity to get through it will root for Asena and her “number-one wish,” which is “to become happy.” (Nonfiction. 12-14)
Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1999
ISBN: 1-886910-40-5
Page Count: 125
Publisher: Lemniscaat/Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
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