Girlfriend Material - Softcover

Melissa Kantor (melissakantor.com) is a teacher in Brooklyn, New York, where she lives with her husband, the poet Ben Gantcher, and their three children. She is the author of Confessions of a Not It Girl ; If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where's My Prince? and The Breakup Bible. Visit her online at www.melissakantor.com

Grade 6–9—Salt Lake City native Katie, 16, is planning a great summer with her friend Laura. She is registered for a fiction writing class and has scheduled daily tennis practices, activities that will keep her out of the house so that she can avoid her warring parents. Suddenly her mom announces that she and Kate will be spending the summer on Cape Cod, at her old friends' house. Although Kate is unhappy that her plans have been shelved, she looks forward to spending time with Sarah, the pretty, self-confident and super-cool hosts' daughter. Unfortunately, Sarah is clearly less than pleased to have a new sidekick. Kate determines to make the best of the situation and lands a job teaching tennis, and eventually Sarah mellows enough to be friendly and include her socially. Kate falls hard for good-looking, smart Adam, necessitating her to deal with a complicated romantic relationship while coping with her parents' possible divorce. In this engaging and satisfying novel, nothing earth-shattering happens but the dialogue is witty and readers will relate to the realistically described roller coaster of emotions of a typical suburban teenager. This is the perfect book to give to a someone who loves Maureen Daly's teen classic, Seventeenth Summer (S & S, 1981), or Kantor's earlier books.—Susan Riley, Mount Kisco Public Library, NY END