Meanwhile, Jess’s death-obsessed granny moves into her bedroom, along with her grandfather’s remains; her hypochondriac dad, who sends her daily “horrorscopes” like “You will fall asleep with your mouth open, and a family of earwigs will move in,” acts strange about Jess staying with him this summer; and her longtime friend Fred, a television violence addict and closet thumbsucker, has decided that he can’t stand being around her. Jess is determined to make things right . . . but with her offbeat sense of humor and her wildly active imagination, things get complicated along the way.
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Awards
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Release date
August 24, 2004 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780739330814
- File size: 179066 KB
- Duration: 06:13:03
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- Text Difficulty: 7-12
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Reviews
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AudioFile Magazine
Jess feels she lives in the shadow of her best friend, the gorgeous, smart, and so very kind, Flora--a typical case of teen angst, to be sure. Katherine Kellgren perfectly captures the essence of an off-beat character and her somewhat stereotypical friends in this blithely British tale. Kellgren is the voice of youth in the telling of Jess's life story, 15 years of frustration caused by an absent dad, a mother with a new life, and a bad case of lust for the best-looking boy in her class, mega-handsome Ben Jones. In this first-person narrative, Kellgren pulls out all the stops as she takes on the persona of Jess and her friends with vitality and flair. D.P.M. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine -
Publisher's Weekly
August 16, 2004
Sure to leave readers in stitches, Limb's (Come Back, Grandma
) account of a British girl's mishaps and humiliations follows a protagonist who resembles a teenage Bridget Jones. The novel, told in a third-person narrative, gets into the psyche of Jess Jordan, who describes herself as "girl, fifteen, charming, but insane, huge bum, massive ears" and compares herself to her all-too-perfect best friend, Flora Barclay ("Somehow the birds never pooed on Flora's house. It was a sign that the Barclay family were the Chosen Ones"). While good luck comes as easily to Flora as good looks, Jess thinks of herself as hopelessly flawed (especially her chest, which she describes as "the kind of featureless plain upon which airports are constructed"). Her attempt to enhance her bust line—by fashioning silicone-like bags from minestrone soup—fails miserably when a lecherous schoolmate causes one of the bags to explode at a party. Jess flees to the bathroom where, she later learns, a hidden video camera captures her clean-up efforts. On the bright side, Jess has a kind of guardian angel in Fred Parsons, a scraggly-haired classmate whom Jess takes for granted. Unfortunately, by the time Jess realizes her true feelings for Fred, she may have lost him to Flora. In this fast-paced slice-of-life novel, Jess emerges as "everyteen," jealous of her best friend's virtues, critical of her own shortcomings and seeking goals that often turn out not to be what she wanted. Most readers will see a little of themselves in Jesse as she rides waves of disaster and manages to stay afloat. Ages 10-up. -
School Library Journal
January 1, 2005
Gr 7-10 -This is the spring from hell for Jess Jordan, who fears that her rear end is as big as a "mountain range," whose best friend, Flora, is near to perfection, and whose sweet, but violence loving grandmother has moved in with her and her anti-war, librarian mother in this humorous novel by Sue Limb (Delacorte 2004). All of that would be bad enough, but Jess proceeds to alienate her long time buddy, Fred, while pursuing her perennial crush, Ben Jones. Of course, Jess is clueless that Fred is really the one for her. The humor comes with madcap events like the party at which Jess shows up with fake boobs filled with Minestrone soup that explode. Needless to say, she gets captured cleaning up the soup by a hidden video camera. Although Jess is British, American students will relate to the universal themes of friendship, loyalty, and responsibility as well as to these memorable characters and their foibles. Katherine Kellgren does an impressive job of creating authentic voices for the unique and varied characters. Both the tongue in cheek humor and the laugh-out- loud moments are well presented. Fans of Louise Rennison, Carolyn Mackler, and Meg Cabot will eat this one up and be anxiously awaiting the sequel. -"Jo-Ann Carhart, East Islip Public Library, NY"Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Publisher's Weekly
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Formats
- OverDrive Listen audiobook
Languages
- English
Levels
- Text Difficulty:7-12
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