Is your teen upset about moving? A new book about two girls who leave their hometowns and make great friends in a new neighborhood might be just what she needs.
In “Boyfriend Season: Cali Boys,” by Kelli London (Dafina Teen), Jacobi Swanson, a teenage girl who loves following the stock market and is looking for creative inspiration when her father gives her an awesome, new video camera, is bummed. She’s just moved to the suburbs of Los Angeles and is stuck in a one-bathroom house with two dorky brothers — Hunter, who’s a pain, and Diggs, who’s even worse.
She wants nothing more than to physically develop a feminine, hourglass figure (she is, after all, a 15-year-old woman!) and move back to her old neighborhood where she’d left behind her two best friends, Katydid and Scooby. She especially misses Scooby, since she always had a crush on him and now will never know if he liked her the way she liked him.
Jacobi’s one silver lining is Alissa, her new next-door neighbor, who’s her same age. Alissa has lived in the neighborhood for most of her life and once the two girls meet, they know they’re meant to be friends.
Kassidy Maddox is also new to town and hates it as well. The southern California neighborhood she has just moved to is nothing like her old home in New York City — a place where she truly belonged. Back in the Big Apple, Kassidy had a modeling career and boyfriend. But her mother decided to elope with some guy from the City of Angels and now Kassidy is living with a step-daddy-dearest and a nasty, overweight, and overeating stepsister who doesn’t know a single thing about fashion.
At least Kassidy has a new friend, Faith, who knows how to make a big-city girl like her feel at home by introducing her to the Cali boys — who are interesting diversions — but not nearly as fine as the guy Kassidy left back in New York.
Judging by its title, it’s easy to assume that “Boyfriend Season: Cali Boys” is, well, boy-crazy. Yet once you’re a few pages in, it becomes evident that this book is so much more. Sure, the main characters have their sights set on romance but Jacobi and Kassidy both have well-rounded lives, interests, and dreams that go beyond crushes and kisses. Like all young adult novels by London, the teens in this book are spunky, smart, and do fun things that attract quality boyfriends in the end. Plus there’s a parental bonus — zero profanity! This book is recommended for 12- to 17-year-old girls and is so good they’ll want to share it with all of their friends — old and new. Really, what’s not to love?
“Boyfriend Season: Cali Boys,” by Kelli London [241 pages, 2012, $9.95].
Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was 3 years old, and she never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill with two dogs and 12,000 books.
