MARKUS AND THE GIRLS

In this entertaining Norwegian import and follow-up to Markus and Diana (2006), the short, anxious and potentially obsessive-compulsive Markus Simonsen, 13, finds himself only two months into his first year of junior high and in love for the 15th time. Unable to find the gumption to act on his feelings, the teen once again relies on his overconfident sidekick, Sigmund. His best friend’s help always turns to hijinks, however, especially when he proposes a staging of Romeo and Juliet to win over Markus’s latest object of desire. Adding to the merriment are Markus’s widower father, who has similar love-interest problems, and a father-son relationship that is both droll and tender. Although Sigmund’s last effort is dragged out too long, the Shakespearean backdrop and comedic banter and timing reveal Hagerup’s dramatist background. While the foreign titles and authors mentioned will be unfamiliar to most readers, Chace’s otherwise seamless translation aptly conveys the typical angst of young teenage boys and leaves readers cheering for Markus and the next girl of his dreams. (Fiction. 11-14)