POSER

Tallulah Jones, recent Florida-to-California transplant, wears all the latest surfer-girl fashions and earns the nickname Hurricane Girl after telling a whale of a story about her surfing skills. The surf as well as the jig is up when her new friends take her to the beach and learn the truth about her nonexistent wave-catching skills. She’s now an outcast at school, but she won’t stay away from the ocean. On weekends she’s learning the sport from the talented but dorky Katie. Due to a series of wrong-place-wrong-time mishaps, Tallulah never gets to prove her new talents until she has to rescue expert surfer Jenna, who tries to take her board out during a storm. Tallulah isn’t always graceful or even gracious, but her dedication to surfing and resolve in standing up to her bullies make her a believable heroine. She sometimes wipes out in the boy and friendship departments, but she also gets back up and tries to set things right. The beauty and danger of surfing are captured through Tallulah’s mile-a-minute, often funny descriptions. (Fiction. 12 & up)