2 Teen Books

I don't feel like writing complete reviews for the books I read yesterday, but I did read 2 teenage books. One, Big Mouth & Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates was an interesting school about Ursula, a straight A student who plays three sports and does art, and about her alter-ego, Ugly Girl who does things that Ursula would never imagine doing. She gets into moods (red= happy, black=sad) When she gets in a black or inky mood she has to distract herself by doing other things. She finds out something about a boy, Matt Donaghy, who is accused of a horrible crime. They become friends and save each other. It wasn't too much like a typical teen book, so Final Grade: 4 stars.

The other book I read was the third in a quartet (the library didn't have the first 2) called The Black Book: Diary of a Teenage Stud, Vol. III: Run, Jonah, Run by Jonah Black. It was supposed to represent an actual journal that just happened to get published. This was interesting because it was written from a guys perspective, as a growing number of teen books are. Apparently the literary community is trying to give girls a glimpse of the other half of the world.

In this book, the main character Jonah has "fallen in love" with a girl he knew at boarding school and because of this, he stops dating his best friend. His younger sister is going to college, Harvard I might add, before him because she skipped a grade and he got held back because he got expelled from his old school, and there's a mystery girl who talks to him online, hwo seems perfect for him. Basically, he's got a lot of problems. This was quick read, and it was a bit redundant because Jonah just keeps saying the same things over and over again. Final Grade: 3.1 stars.