Girl, 15: Charming But Insane

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.

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.

July 18, 2005
In PW
's words, "Sure to leave readers in stitches, this account of a British girl's mishaps and humiliations follows a protagonist who resembles a teenage Bridget Jones." Ages 10-up.