RAISIN RODRIGUEZ AND THE BIG-TIME SMOOCH

Raisin’s back, funny and delightful and determined to get her first kiss. Still blogging every thought and action for her two best friends across the country, seventh-grader Raisin feels like the only person on earth who hasn’t been kissed. Opportunities arise but she declines: She really only wants to kiss sweet CJ, who smells like cinnamon and wraps his violin in a shopping bag. Misconstruing a scene of CJ kissing a girl who may or not have been an underwear model, Raisin dashes out of a room, prompting her peers to decide that she’s “freaked out by. . . . [h]uman sexuality.” Some are kind about it (though they conceal who is kissing whom); others label her Miss Priss, necessitating Operation Reputation Removal. When CJ’s two dads get married, he requests Raisin’s help with his speech—could this mean he likes her back? Throughout this life-and-death drama and some nitty-gritty puberty details, Raisin’s voice is sparkly and hilarious. (Fiction. 10-13)