An amusing, quirky tale of a girl who feels invisible (but isn’t) becoming embarrassingly famous in her community for a photo involving cleavage. When Aunt Sarah sends 13-year-old Floey a training bra—several sizes smaller than Floey needs—friend Azra snaps a gag photo of Floey posed seductively, bra over nightgown but creating neckline cleavage. Nasty cousins come to stay for three weeks and, with the neighborhood bully, post both the photo and Floey’s diary online. Local 11-year-old boys and one 15-year-old are entranced. Floey temporarily loses her two best friends from love-triangle issues, but the diary’s exposure causes nothing serious; the Web site must go, however, so the New Floey plots its demise. Along the way, she acquires purple hair, her very own Zen cowboy and the sweet idea that perhaps love sometimes lasts (proven by old people skinny-dipping blissfully at midnight). Marred only by typically teen-aged, but unnecessary slams of fat people. An entertaining contribution to the current private-diary-made-public trend. (Fiction. 9-12)
Pub Date: May 10, 2005
ISBN: 0-385-73241-4
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2005
PLB 0-7868-2427-1 The content and concerns of Levy’s latest is at odds with the young reading level and large type size, which may prevent this novel’s natural audience of middle schoolers from finding a fast and funny read. In sixth grade, Rebecca broke her friend Scott’s toe at a dance. Now, in seventh grade, they are partners in a ballroom dance class, and they soon find they dance well together, but that makes Rebecca’s friend Samantha jealous. She gives a party during which spin-the-bottle is played, kissing Scott and then bullying him into being her boyfriend. While Rebecca deals with her mixed feelings about all this, she also has a crush on her dance instructor. Levy (My Life as a Fifth-Grade Comedian, 1997, etc.) has great comedic timing and writes with a depth of feeling to make early adolescent romantic travails engaging; she also comes through on the equally difficult feat of making ballroom dancing appealing to young teens. The obsession with kissing, pre-sexual tension, and sensuality of the dancing will be off-putting or engrossing, depending entirely on readers’ comfort levels with such conversations in real life as well as on the page. Precocious preteens will find that this humorously empathetic take on budding romance is just right. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: March 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-7868-0498-X
Page Count: 154
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
In a quiet, introspective novel, Debbie, 13, faces one of the worst things that can happen to the young; she’s lost a best friend, Maureen, to a boring, rather unpleasant classmate, Glenna. With carefully observed details and moments, picture-book creator Perkins (Clouds for Dinner, 1997, etc.) shows why Debbie can believe that she’ll never have a happy day again. Of course, there are others around, such as her new neighbor, the worldly Maria, and girls from school, but none of them is as wonderful as Maureen. Debbie finds herself hating Glenna, but a kindly teacher helps her realize that Glenna didn’t “take” Maureen—Maureen left. It all adds up to a just examination of one of the small but piercing sorrows of growing up, with a cast of arresting characters, freckles of humor, and black-and-white drawings that enhance the muted tale; Perkins gives the significance of friendship its due, and then some. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-688-16881-7
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1999
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