Kittenpie Reads KidLit

by Charity Tahmaseb & Darcy Vance

What starts out as a sort of social experiment to test the fairness of cheerleading tryouts leads geek girls Bethany and Moni into entirely new territory when they find themselves members of the squad.

There are crushes on popular boys that seem to be coming to fruition, some acceptance among the popular clique girls, but also clashes with the worst of them, an ex-friend who resents not only the new status of these two rising stars, but also the attention they are getting from those most crushable boys.

Add in that Moni seems determined never to go back, going over so far into the world of the clique that it comes between the two girls, and Bethany is not too sure how this will ever end well.

Things work out, mostly, of course - this is, after all, a nice light read, but it also raises a few issues along the way, and I quite like Bethany, the main character. I'd recommend it as a somewhat meater bit of chicklit, definitely.

Labels: 2009, fluff, friendship, girly, growing up, love story, teen

by Louise Rennison.

And here it is. The tenth and final book in the confessions of Georgia Nicholson series.

The one where she finally figures out her boy situation, though not until the very, very, VERY end, after you, as a reader, have very nearly had a nervy b.

The one where she and her friends start to show mysterious signs of maybe edging towards the direction of maturing just a touch. (But not that much, don't be scared.)

My very favourite wait-for-the-next-one series for girly teens, the one that makes me laugh like a drain, as Georgia would put it.

I am, for all that I did indeed giggle and cackle my way through it and thoroughly enjoy it, unreasonably sad. Now where will I turn when I need to be wholeheartedly amused until it hurts? I may have to re-read these, and if you haven't read them at least once, I recommend you get started. You won't regret it a bit - only that it ends.

Meanwhile - Ms. Rennison? I do hope you are starting a new series?

(Check out some of this last book online if you don't believe it could be so funny - then come back and tell me I'm right.)

Labels: 2009, fluff, friendship, girly, growing up, humour, love story, loved it, Publisher Reviews, teen

by Louise Rennison.

With this book, the series of the "Confessions of Georgia Nicholson" is at, to my delight, book #9. And while I was, around the end of book #8 (Love Is A Many Trousered Thing) (my review here), starting to get a twist in my nicknacks about why she couldn't just get on with it and figure out that she and Dave the Laugh were perfect together, I have to admit that this one came back so funny that although I still wanted it to happen, I was enjoying the ride too much to have the hump about it, as Gee would say.

This time, things are heating up between her and Masimo, but she keeps finding Dave the Laugh hanging around in her brain for some reason, and she can tell it's getting to Masimo - at one point, she stops an almost-fight with the line in the title. (Nice work, kittykat.)

It's not resolved quite yet, all of this agony of luuuurve, but along the way, Rennison serves up more of Georgia's usual madness and hilarious self-absorption, as well as her equally berserk family and friends. (and cats, for that matter)

These remain the only books that I cannot allow myself to read in public, for fear of looking like a complete twit when I laugh to the point of hysterics - I nearly choked myself giggling over this at home one night. (My husband may be calling a psychiatrist for me behind my back.)

Now on to #10, just arrived...

(want a little taste of the mad, mad world of Georgia before you dive right in? Go check out this book here!)

Labels: 2008, fluff, friendship, girly, growing up, humour, love story, loved it, teen

Richard Peck is a prolific writer, and one I have enjoyed many times, at different ages. As a girl, I thrilled to his tales of Blossom Culp and loved Ghosts I Have Been. More recently, I have loved his hilarious tales of long-ago happenings in small towns. His ridiculously funny Long Way From Chicago
was a favourite pick for nearly everyone, landing on "best" lists everywhere. The followup, Year Down Yonder, won a Newbery. Here Lies The Librarian
continued this trend, a great, rollicking story of pranks, races, and schemes, not to mention some great librarians (my review here).

In this new book, Peck returns to these rural roots with the story of a family's adjustment to a new town, helped along mightily by a crotchety, fierce, and fiercely independent old neighbour who insists that she "don't neighbor" even while she works behind the scenes to make things happen her way.

It seems that she has taken a shine to these new arrivals, though, and in her gruff, mysterious way, she paves the way for them while she brings down revenge on some of the town's shadier characters both on their behalf and her own through one ridiculous mishap after another.

By the end, her gifts become more apparent, and the "new" family has been solidly taken in by the town - so much so, that their success will lead them on their way.

A fun, warm-hearted read, this book may culminate in a Christmas scene, but should in no way be seen as limited to being just a seasonal book - it's a great read at any time of year, this one.

Labels: 2009, family, fluff, friendship, good stuff, historical fiction, humour, middle grades, Publisher Reviews

a novel by Rob Reger and Buzz Parker.

I've been a fan of Emily the Strange as a sort of semi-defined character in my mind for quite a while, as have many people who wear her on their hair-clips, lunchboxes, or pencil-cases - but never really had much of a firm handle on her story or what she was really about. All of which has changed. Now? Now, I love her.

Right from the start, this book pulls you in with a promising premise and a winning voice and personality. You see, we know she's Emily, but she doesn't. In fact, she doesn't know anything about herself, having arrived in a super-weird town with a serious case of amnesia. it tells you right away that you are in for a good ride as she tries to sort things out, and things are pretty, er, Strange in this town.

The other characters are also interesting little puzzles that make you wonder and keep you guessing, even if hardly anyone seems likeable, and the town contains enough odd little mysteries to satisfy even the most easily bored. As she does start to unravel the layers of mystery, Emily discovers (and we along with her) what kind of person she is (and is decidedly not), where she came from, that she knows a lot of people in some other unusual places, and finally, the big secret that brought her here in the first place.

You may just be following along in her diary, but she is funny, smart, and every inch unapologetic for being different, so she never loses you, and the little drawings and asides are worth noticing.

Final verdict? I half-expected this to be kind of gimmicky and not so great, as books based on something else often are, but I was pleasantly surprised, and loved every minute of this. I fully recommend it to anyone who likes a girl with a twist - chicklit this is not, yet girly fun all the same.

And even better, you can check it out online at HarperCollins' website for the book, where they have not just the usual inside jacket flaps and a tiny excerpt, but over half of it posted for viewing with the Browse Inside feature. That's pretty awesome in itself.

Labels: 2009, fluff, graphic novel, growing up, loved it, Publisher Reviews, slightly weird stuff, teen, witches and wizards

by Arthur Slade, from the Canadian Chillers series.

Something weird is going on in Nanaimo, BC, where plates of nanaimo bars are being delivered, and a few of them stolen away by a large, hairy thief. And why do the parents all seem so strange, all of a sudden, what with the curlers and the TV-watching and the obsession with clean ears?

Determined to find out, a pair of friends and friendly competitors set out after the thief to find out what she knows. A fair bit, it turns out, but joining forces, the three just barely manage to stop the brains of Nanaimo from becoming fuel for intergalactic flight. No, really. But it's okay, everyone turns out normal in the end, and the thief becomes a friend - for future volumes, perhaps?

Strange and silly, this one reminds me a bit of Daniel Pinkwater's style, and is sure to have the same appeal, especially to reluctant readers. Teachers may appreciate the author, who is notable on the Canadian kid lit scene, while kids will pretty surely enjoy the thin size and the fun, quirky, fast-paced content.

Labels: 2007, enh, fluff, middle grades, slightly weird stuff, suspense

by Louise Rennison. Book #8 in the Georgia Nicolson series.


Oh my giddygodspajamas (as Georgia might say), how I love these. Truly, I can't read them in public because I tend to gigle, snort, and ocasionally howl, they are so damn funny. This last is no less ridiculous, with family madness continuing, a class camping trip looming, and not one but two potential boys to figure out?

How to choose between a Luuurve God who has said he is free for you and a Sex God who has returned from afar without notice or known reason? Ack! Yes, our girl Gee is stumped, and as such, acts like a crazy loon. As you do. (If you're Georgia.) And there's Dave the Laugh. Why does he keep popping up in her thoughts? He's just a mate. Right?

So yes, still funny after all these years, though I must admit - the bouncing back and forth between and not noticing Dave is starting to wear thin. I had figured this would be the book where she pulled him into the mix of her boy confusion, but no, it is more of the same, and she still has not figured that one out by the end. So while I continue to love them... She'd better at least add him to the list by next book, or I may just give up entirely.

Labels: 2007, fluff, girly, good stuff, humour, love story, teen

by Paul Kropp. Reviewed for Random House. See more info on this title here.



(a word on publisher reviews at kittenpie reads)



This book is subtitled Definitely not a book about baseball. Well, yes, most definitely not. I can see how that subtitle could be necessary, I suppose, given the title and the fact that the author is a man, and people could easily jump to the conclusion that this one is about sports, not about dating, as it actually is.



This book is also definitely fluffy, and a teen read, focussing entirely on Al's project to get himself a girl. The twist is that when he tries and gets shot down by one of the less popular but very smart girls in his class, she offers to hire out as a consultant and guide to the world of dating and what girls want. A dating coach.

They sign a contract, and the fun begins. He tries and practices and stumbles a good few times, and she points out where he went wrong, prepares him for the next steps, and basically grooms him to treat a girl properly. In the end, she discovers that he has made good headway based entirely on a lie, and quits, just in time for him to get dumped anyhow. She sets him up on one last blind date, though, giving the book a "twist ending" once she thinks he is fully prepared.

I say a "twist ending" in quotations because, well, it was predictable. As were the ways in which he messes up - you see them coming well down the road as he builds towards them. Still, it was an easy read on a topic of high interest to teens, and because of the main character being male and all, this could appeal to boys as much as girls already familiar with the dating genre. The thing I particularly liek about that is that the advice is, in fact, pretty solid, and Al's friend who tries to give him advice and pass himself off as a well-seasoned ladies' man is exposed as a total fraud, his opinions rendered as useless as they really are. So if boys would read this? They might actually improve their own chances by acting like the boy a girl really does want to date, and wouldn't that be a boon to both sexes?

Labels: 2005, Canadian, fluff, love story, Publisher Reviews, teen

by David Levithan

Levithan is one of the big bright lights in teen lit these days, and I loved his parts of Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, so I wanted to try seomthing of his own. plus, the cover is cute, and I haven't read a lot of teen gay lit - seriously, it's like chicklit for boys who like boys.

The story was cute, the writing wonderful, the emotions exactly the kind of gut-wrenching up-and-down-ness of new maybe-love. My only real issue was the fact that the whole town and school and setting was obviously SO fictional. A town where the star quarterback is also the homecoming queen? Where there are no issues with being gay in any corner, it seems? Where the main character has never had a tough time because of it? He has one friend from a neighbouring town who has religious parents who have trouble with his sexuality, but otherwise, everything is tickety-boo. Hmm. It's like the most idealized, hazy-focused vision of what life could be like if no one had problems with any form of sexuality or its expression. Which is lovely and all, but still sadly far from realistic, and I think most gay teens would know that pretty well already. Still, I suppose, if you are going to lose yourself in sweet fiction, why not escape all the way?

Labels: 2003, fluff, good stuff, love story, teen

by Edeet Ravel. Book two. (Book One reviewed here.)

The continuing adventures of Pauline continue in much the same vein, although she seems somewhat more sophisticated in her writing. Perhaps all her practice has paid off, not to mention the quotations she has sprinkled throughout this second novel at Zane Burbank III's advice...

Pauline loses her best friend Genevieve to the city, where she has gone to train for Olympic skating glory, and also loses her boyfriend to the folly of thinking another, newer boy was pretty exciting, if confusing. Her parents seem to find their feet post-divorce with new companions, which throw her off a bit, but by the end, things have settled, and she finds herself ready for new adventures, which she will be sure to write about in book three.

Fun, girly, fluff, quite charming still, but growing up some. Her involvement with boys remains pretty lightweight - she is, she says, too young for anything more than kissing yet. This is one of the things that keeps this a nice intro to chicklit for younger girls, while she also brings in touches from novels like Madame Bovary, which Pauline is reading while she lives and writes her own story. I would like to hope that that and the quotations might make some readers curious about some classic authors, too, which would be a nice touch.

Labels: 2007, Canadian, fluff, girly, good stuff, middle grades

by Edeet Ravel.

Pauline is writing a novel, adhering closely to the advice of Zane Burbank III's book You Too Can Write a Great Novel! She is also in middle school in a mid-sized Ontario town, with a handful of good friends, an even better imagination, and newly divorced parents who provide lots of fodder for the trenchanct conflict she is trying to inject into the story at Zane's behest. What follows is a bit scattershot (but it is divided nicely into chapters that are not too long, contain plenty of dialogue, and try not to cover too many topics in each), and full of the charm of a girl of that age trying to tell a story while constantly interrupted and always having something else to say as things come up (it's so hard to avoid long tangents when you are 13!). Funny, sweet, still very innocent, and really, really cute. A great choice for girls looking to try something chicklit-ish in feel, but without lots of drama and mean girls and serious boy action. (She does develop a relationship, but one that grows slowly from friendship, and is not going anywhere quickly.)

Labels: 2007, Canadian, fluff, girly, middle grades

by Meg Cabot.

This is one that is really in the adutl collection, but I include it here for teens for a couple of reasons. One, Meg is primarily a teen writer, and the voice here is similar to her teen books. They will relate. Two, the character is just in her early twenties, having been a teen pop sensation and now working in a residence hall at the thinly disguised New York U. Again, an age group and setting entirely relatable for older teens. Finally, did you know that the Young Adult section at the library is actually aimed up to 25? Yep.

But about the book... So Heather wells used to be a bubble gummy pop singer, until she decided she wanted to sing different material and also started to put on a bit of weight. Now she's working at a residence hall so she can go to classes some day, since her mother took off with her savings and she's got not much to live on. luckily, her ex's brother (and her current crush) Copper lets her live in an extra apartment at his house near the university, so it's working for now. At least, things are relatively smoothe until two deaths at the residence hall seem related, and she's the only one who doesn't believe they are accidents. But when her own life starts looking like it's in danger too, she gets Cooper and a police detective involved.

So it's a mystery. And it's chicklit. And what's with the title? Well, Heather is a little defensive about now being a size 12 which, as she keeps pointing out, is not fat, it's the size of the average American woman, god! It's fun and fluffy and now there's a sequel which I will get to at some point, too, if you enjoy this one. And if you tend to like Meg's other work, you will.

Labels: 2005, fluff, girly, good stuff, suspense, teen

by Meg Cabot.

Yup, it's another chicklit book by Meg. In the same voice as her Princess books and pretty much all of her teen chick books. But you know what? I like the voice. Maybe it's because I can relate to it - and everygirl voice, the voice of someone who feels kind of awkward, but isn't that badly off, the voice of someone who is neither popular nor unpopular. A voice I bet thousand of young girls can totally understand, because they hear it in their own heads, too. Sometimes it's nice to have company.

Anyhow, Jenny Greenley is the Girl Next Door. The Nice Girl. The Smoother Over of Problems. And she is entrusted with not only the anonymous school advice column, but also being the student guide for the undercover visit of movie star Luke Striker. Things go awry, but before he takes off, he tells her he thinks she could be more. Be less passive, and use her position as everybody's friend to make high school less vicious. In the end, it turns out he's at least as astute as she is, and shows her some things about herself. And of course, since this is chicklit and all, there's a boy and a happy ending for everybody. The end.

Labels: 2004, fluff, girly, good stuff, love story, teen

Princess Diaries, vol. VIII. By Meg Cabot.

Ack! I guess she needed drama in Mia's life to make things roll forward, but jinkies! This is a total cliffhanger and I'm kinda mad at Meg for breaking up Mia and Michael. I have faith that she'll work things out with Lilly, her best friend since forever, but I'm not sure about Michael and it's just not right, dammit. Rarely does fluff leave me in a state of panic when it ends, but here I am. The thing is, I've gotten invested in the character. She's real is what it comes down to - she has plenty of insecurities, her reactions make sense, she cares about stuff that lots of teens care about, like being vegetarian and the environment and what her hair looks like, all at once. Meg is obviously totally in touch with her teenaged self still, because I've heard her talk, and Mia is so her. So silly as it seems to be so involved with my fluff, I'm going to say it - this fluff is good stuff. So there.

Labels: fluff, teen

Princess Diaries, vol. VII. By Meg Cabot.

Okay, these are total fluff. And they do read like they were written fast - because by now, Meg has Mia's voice down so well, she just needs a rough plot outline to write along, really, and she can just go. But it works here, it really does. These are fun, and I love the character, even if it's not fine literature. There's a lot to be said for a character you can just identify with in lots of ways as a teen, and lots to be said for some brain candy. And tonight I start the next volume. Yay!

Labels: 2006, fluff, teen