BUSTED

Flute-playing band loser Kevin unexpectedly ups his mojo but loses respect when superjock Brandon Trent signs him on to compile The Book of Busts, a secret notebook that lists the body measurements of all the girls who go to the school. Soon, all the young women around him are either racing to date him or hate him, and Kevin finds he has to choose between doing the right thing—chucking the book, obviously—or maintaining his newfound popularity. Sexual innuendos run amuck in the first few pages of this well-meaning but tepid comedic battle of the sexes. John’s caricatures of Brandon’s friends are hilariously dead on, especially when the dialogue between them is nothing more than “Dude. Like. Whoa.” It’s these smaller elements and the supporting cast that keep the plot from getting too heavy, and readers won’t latch onto the feminism-fueled plot so much as Kevin himself as he squirms between getting all the girls he dreams about and being honest with the one girl he actually wants. (Fiction. YA)