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!
The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink
Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs, and Me,
Ruby Oliver
by E. Lockhart