A Smart Girl's Guide to Boys

A preteen girl's guide to relationships with boys.

Gr 5-8-This upbeat title travels familiar ground, dispensing good advice to girls who are experiencing the first twinges of romance. The book is organized into five main sections: "Brave New World," covering crushes; "Who Likes Who" or how to let a boy know you are interested; "Life in the Fishbowl" on balancing friends and boyfriends; and "Going Together," which offers some ideas for hanging out and advice on the first kiss. The final topic, "Taking Care of You," features a quiz aimed at evaluating how girls are handling themselves in the arena of life with boys. The lively text is interspersed with quick tests and letters from girls. The overall theme, that of developing self-confidence, comes through loud and clear. The comic-book graphics, friendly fonts, and use of color will be appreciated by teens. While none of the information presented here is new, the book does a good job of covering the basics, and readers who are searching for an answer to "Does he like me?" will find help in this text.

Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

A Smart Girl's Guide to Boys: Surviving Crushes, Staying True to Yourself, & Other Love Stuff! by Nancy Holyoke, illus. by Bonnie Timmons, gives advice in sections called "How to tell him you like him," "Competition & jealousy" and "How to break up." Teens can read letters from girls and advice from boys as well as trying the "pop" quizzes sprinkled throughout.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 4-6. This book offers helpful advice to girls who are suddenly seeing boys as something other than an annoyance. Topics range from balancing friends and boyfriends, and chaste but fun suggestions for what to do when "going out" to surviving the inevitable rejection. The focus is on social, not sexual, aspects of those first opposite-sex relationships (these youngsters have just about gotten around to first kisses). The book is sprinkled with "letters" purported to be by real kids, but no acknowledgments are included. There are also several quizzes of the teen-magazine, pop-psychology variety. Cartoon illustrations (some with hard-to-read hand-printed dialogue bubbles) will either amuse or annoy. Although youngsters spend a sadly brief time at the training-wheels stage in their relationships, it's a confusing period; the advice offered in this book is conservative, age-appropriate, and reassuring. Catherine Andronik
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