Girls, Girls, Girls

January 1, 2002
Jonah Black is back in Run, Jonah, Run, Volume III of the Black Book: Diary of a Teenage Stud series. The virile volume opens with Jonah on the verge of losing his virginity to Posie. An unexpected phone call from former flame Sophie changes the mood.

October 1, 2001
Through his journals, Jonah Black (who's listed as the official author) narrates this engaging, if offbeat, first installment, chronicling his return to Pompano Beach, Fla., after he's booted out of his Pennsylvania boarding school. He's forced to repeat his junior year, listen to his mother, a self-appointed "sexpert" and author of the bestselling Hello Penis! Hello Vagina!
host a shallow radio call-in show, and watch the best friend he's crushing on fall in love with a worthless womanizer. These often painful doses of reality are overlaid with surreal sexual fantasies, the majority of which involve the girlfriend he left behind (in one, Sophie does a striptease in a classroom). Readers willing to navigate these unannounced imaginative episodes will race through this fast-paced read to collect clues about the cause of his expulsion—and to see if Jonah's breaks from reality mean he's crazy or just creative. Regardless, he's instantly likable, and his vulnerabilities, acute description and tenuous hold on reality make for gripping and often humorous reading. Some readers may be frustrated by how many strings are left untied, even as they eagerly anticipate Jonah's next book. Ages 9-up.

August 1, 2001
Gr 10 Up-"Girls, Girls, Girls" proclaims the black notebook edged with bright red cloth tape. Inside this "diary of a teenage stud," readers will actually find the random, wandering thoughts of 17-year-old Jonah Black, who has been recently expelled from prep school in Pennsylvania and has returned to Pompano Beach, FL. Adding insult to injury, because of the expulsion, Jonah must repeat his junior year at Don Shula High. The book covers the teen's first six weeks back home and the adjustments he must make to the life he left behind two years earlier. The troubling thing about his diary is that much of it is dedicated to either imaginary conversations between him and a girl named Sophie, or flashbacks to his relationship with her. It isn't entirely clear whether Sophie actually exists or if she was a target of some magnificent obsession. A lot of the journal is not clear-period. Is Jonah really a threat to the commu-nity and a danger to himself, or are his musings just the product of an overactive imagination? The story (such that it is) is entertaining enough to keep readers turning pages, but as Jonah isn't a particularly sympathetic character, readers may lose interest in him and his friends. There's definitely a dark edge here; this book is more like Go Ask Alice (S & S, 1971) than Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging or Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries (both HarperCollins, 2000).-Elaine Baran Black, Gwinnett County Public Library, Lawrenceville, GA

Copyright 2001 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2001
\deflang1033\pard\plain\f3\fs24 Gr. 8-12. Intelligent, sensitive Jonah, the author-narrator of \plain\f3\fs24" The Black Book\plain\f3\fs24 diary, has returned home to Florida to repeat his junior year in high school, following a never fully explained expulsion from private school in Pennsylvania. Through his writing, readers find out about his overachieving younger sister; his wacky mother; his father, who has remarried and lives in another state; his mysterious girlfriend from private school; and his crush on his longtime friend Posie Hoff. The quirky fantasies invading Jonah's thoughts distinguish this from the usual stories about a lonely boy's misadventures, as does the clever, witty writing that displays a realistic sense of the way teens talk. The plot twists will leave readers eager for the second installment of Jonah's "adventures." The subtitle and cover photo (the torso of a teenage girl in a bikini leaping out of the water) will attract some kids, but they're so flippant that they may put off readers who would otherwise be mesmerized by Jonah's thoughtful perspectives and his sardonic tone. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)