How I Changed My Life

Known as Bo Vine, Bolita Vine decides to lose weight and become more assertive, a resolution sorely tested when major hunk Kyle Winthrop and his perfect girlfriend, Chloe, star in the school play that Bo is stage managing.

Grade 7 Up?Awkward senior Bovita Vine, nicknamed "Bo," specializes in managing the school plays from her favorite theater seat, the catwalk. Her work is crucial to the success of any production, but she has always avoided the spotlight. Now, she has a crush on Kyle, a football hunk whose career is cut short by a knee injury, whose cookie-cutter perfect girlfriend Chloe always has a leading role. The plot is old, and Strasser has used the character types before?demanding rich girls with big houses, accomplished smart girls, decent jocks reluctantly open to growth opportunities, and musicians who have learned about life?but the author's inimitable humor and sure grasp of high school sociometrics freshens them. Teens will be amused by the secretive pizza franchise based in the boys' restroom. They will probably accept that someone might want to break into a prison, and they will certainly recognize the PINS (Persons In Need of Supervision) who live to rattle teachers. Although the revolving first-person point of view (chapters alternate between Kyle and Bo) may be confusing to some readers, those who stay with the story will profit from Strasser's study of developing relationships. Kyle's growing acceptance of his baby half-brother and stepmother is satisfying and well defined; Bo Vine's becoming Dee Vine is funny.?Cindy Darling Codell, Clark Middle School, Winchester, KY
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Aside from its jacket illustration of a pensive girl, this tautly written novel, alternately narrated by a sidelined jock and the pudgy introvert who has a crush on him, holds appeal to readers of both sexes. Benched by a football injury, high school senior Kyle is doing poorly even in the "Pinhead" classes, his old crowd-including picture-perfect girlfriend Chloe-bores him, while his stepmother Jackie and "IT," his toddler half-brother, give him no peace at home. For a change of pace, he accepts the leading male role in the school play, to the delight of co-narrator "Bo" Vine, the stage manager, and the dismay of Chloe, who, as usual, is the star. The wallflower/football hero/ prom queen triangle plays out, with Bo becoming increasingly svelte as she learns to stage-manage her own life, and Kyle learning the proper way to act both on and off the stage. But just as the story seems about to reach the classic payoff, Strasser (The Accident) gives it an unexpected and refreshing twist. Bo may not get her man, but she does get the last word. Strasser's acknowledgment of enduring truths becomes all the more palatable for being so engagingly presented. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 7^-12. Introverted Bo makes her behind-the-scenes mark in high school as stage manager in the theater department. When handsome football captain Kyle Winthrop joins a production because he is sidelined by an injury, Bo finds herself working on her self-image and weight problems to attract his attention and enter the world of her more outgoing peers. Told in engaging first-person narratives that alternate between Bo and Kyle, the novel has both teens gradually growing toward better self-realization. Witty, intense dialogue and a cast of mostly believable characters lend authenticity to the school scenario. A few notes fall flat: there is Kyle's ridiculous view of his stepmother and baby stepbrother (whom he refers to as "It" ), for example; also, the football star's placement in "Pinhead" classes for students needing extra supervision seems an artificial entertainment device even though the Pinhead characters ring true. Anne O'Malley