A BIRD, A BLOKE, AND A BOYFRIEND

Author: Sally Odger ISBN: 0843954655 4/2005 YOUNG ADULT Publisher: SMOOCH

A recipe for romance? Take one bird. (That’s Sarah, arm-wrestling champion extraordinaire.) Add one bloke, who’s known the bird forever. (That’s A.J., who lives next door.) Stir in one boyfriend—literally made to order. (That’s Clay.) Set the whole thing to rise in a tropical sun-soaked paradise called Pirates’ Point, and what have you got? That depends who you ask. The Bloke: "You get Sarah Little making an idiot of herself over the Incredible Hunk." The Bird: "You get A.J. Tobias acting, like, weird. What’s it to him if I feel like kissing Clay?" The Boyfriend: "You get romance. That’s what I’m made for, right? And that bloke can just butt out." Typical, isn’t it? Ask a simple question and you never get a straight answer from anyone…

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

In this teen romance-fantasy, Sarah returns to Australia to visit her grandmother after a three-year absence. She looks forward to renewing her friendship with the boy next door, A.J.. What she wasn’t ready for was for him to have turned into a good-looking guy and now have a girlfriend. When she is invited to be a PT (Peer Tutor) at a summer arts camp, she jumps on the chance to do more sculpting and hanging out with her old friends. After being frustrated about the change in her relationships with the boys that were her friends and their possessive girlfriends, Sarah decides to create the perfect boyfriend sculpture. What she wasn’t prepared for was for the sculpture to come to life as Clay, who is everything she’s ever wanted in a boyfriend. Hilarity ensues when Sarah’s torn between Clay, what she always thought was the perfect boyfriend, and A.J., the boy she’s been friends with forever, but just may be the perfect boyfriend.

I found Odgers’ latest work good fun, an ideal book to take to the beach this summer. Although in a fantastic situation, the main character typifies many typical teens. Sarah struggles with maturing and the changes in her life, her body, and her friends. She’s afraid of the unknown and what the future holds, so she’s much more comfortable with the status quo. While tackling this weighty subject, the reader can take heart that the story is whimsical with a happy ending.

Kendra Patterson