MotherReader

Here are the two other books that I didn’t finish writing about yesterday.

The Boyfriend List, by E. Lockhart
In this book we meet Ruby, or Roo, through her list of “boyfriends.” As she tells us, most of the boys on the list weren’t boys she kissed. Some she didn’t even talk to. But somehow they played a factor in her life. She is going to a counselor to help with the panic attacks that started coming after her boyfriend broke up with her, started dating her best friend, and ten other things in one week. The story captures the frenzied life of a teenager for whom boys and friends are of the utmost importance.

The Boy Book, also by E. Lockhart (duh), continues Ruby’s story as she realizes important things about her ex-boyfriend, her friend, and herself. She goes on a week-long field trip with a mix of people, including her kind-of friend, her almost-friend, and her almost-boyfriend. As you can guess, it’s a sticky situation.

What I enjoyed about these books were how realistic they felt. Everything doesn’t just work out. Dramatic things can cause things to turn on a dime. And when a boy breaks up with you in high school, it is absolute torture. Oh, and the footnotes were really cool.

One question though: Do teens in Seattle use the word shattered for exhausted? I thought that was a British thing.