The Boyfriend List

THE BOYFRIEND LIST by E. Lockhart
Category: Contemporary
Age Recommendation: Grades 9+
Release Date: 3/22/05
Publisher: Delacorte
Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius"
Rating: 5 Stars

The additional title of THE BOYFRIEND LIST is (15 guys, 11 shrink appointments, 4 ceramic frogs and me, Ruby
Oliver). It's very enlightening, entertaining, and oh-so-paramount to the book. This is the life and times of nearly
sixteen-year-old Ruby Oliver, former girlfriend of Jackson, former best friend of Kim, former semi-popular sophomore
high school girl. Now just a girl with panic attacks, a xerox copied "Boyfriend List" circulating through school, and a
shrink named Doctor Z.

Ruby's life used to be pretty normal, until her boyfriend broke up with her to date her best friend. Then the panic attacks
started--shortness of breath, a tightening sensation in the chest, dizziness and nausea--that had her parents shipping her off
to a psychiatrist to work out her "issues." Those issues would mainly be, in chronological order:

1) Adam
2) Finn
3) Hutch
4) Gideon
5) Ben
6) Tommy
7) Chase
8) Sky
9) Michael
10) Angelo
11) Shiv
12) Billy
13) Jackson
14) Noel
15) Cabbie

It might sound, in retrospect, like a lot of guys in a short period of time. But Ruby's made a list of every boy who has ever
meant something to her, and these are the fifteen guys that make up the list. In THE BOYFRIEND LIST, we learn about
all the guys in Ruby's life, from Adam to Cabbie and everyone in between--and the result is a laugh-out-loud
coming-of-age story that is well worth reading.

I can't wait for the release of THE BOY BOOK: A STUDY OF HABITS AND BEHAVIORS, PLUS TECHNIQUES
FOR TAMING THEM to be released in September 2006. Since THE BOY BOOK was actually the creation of Ruby
Oliver and her friends in THE BOYFRIEND LIST, it should be quite an adventure!