HOW I CHANGED MY LIFE

Her senior year is not easy for Bo (short for Bolita) Vine. She is as pudgy, drab, and withdrawn as ever. Worse yet, she has fallen in love with Kyle, a rather dim hunk who was a football hero before he shattered his knee in a game. Kyle is in love with talented, rich, gorgeous Chloe, whom Bo loathes. Bo decides to change her image; she diets, has her hair done, starts using makeup, and becomes more assertive. When her English teacher convinces her to stage manage the senior play in which Chloe is starring, Bo reluctantly agrees, because Kyle is cast as the male lead. How everything gets sorted out makes for a fresh and very funny story, fast-paced and full of insights, and populated with some of the most interesting characters—even minor ones—in recent YA history. Strasser (The Diving Bell, 1992, etc.) conveys all this in very short chapters (some less than a page long) from the alternating perspectives of Bo and Kyle, and this works well- -perhaps better than it's been done since Paul Zindel's The Pigman (1968). A grand story by an author who understands and respects his readers. They'll love it. (Fiction. 12+)