GIRL TO THE CORE

Molly is so easygoing that her boyfriend, best friend and even eight-year-old neighbor call most of the shots. Thus does she find herself being pressured into sex, sneaking into bars and joining the Girl Corps, a leadership group for young girls. Although at 15 she is much older than the rest of the Corps, she has just as much to learn about self-confidence as her third-grade counterparts. It is through her Girl Corps experience that Molly recognizes that her failure to assert herself is the cause of so many of her troubles. There are no pat endings here; through her funny, first-person narration, Molly works out that human relationships are messy and reaches some fairly adult conclusions about her responsibilities as a girlfriend, friend and mentor. As Molly conquers her insecurities, Goldblatt’s playful use of language sneaks some SAT-worthy vocabulary into the story, but the teen voice remains authentic and believable. Included at the end are 100 questions to help readers discover “What kind of girl is at your core?” (Fiction. 12 & up)