Are You Going to Kiss Me Now?

Gr 7—10—Francesca thinks of herself as anything but gorgeous, with her red curls and freckles, but she knows that she can write. She wins a Seventeen magazine essay contest for a trip to Africa with several celebrities to perform charity work. This is a dream come true because she is wholly absorbed in the lives of pop-culture icons, memorizing details about them from the magazines she buys every week. Also, with her parents' recent divorce, her father having a baby with his girlfriend, and her mother and sister acting strangely, Francesca could really use an escape. She is awestruck by the faces she sees on the plane and excited about the new adventure. Then the plane crashes, leaving her marooned on an island with a bunch of celebrity strangers. Through the days-long ordeal, Francesca learns that her idols have problems and insecurities of their own. She keeps an account of all the events on the island (through text messages "sent" to her best friend on her nonworking cell phone), and after their rescue, Seventeen hires her as its youngest staff writer ever. This story will appeal to girls who dream of meeting and falling in love with their favorite celebrities, but the novel's overabundance of pop-culture references will quickly date it. The plot is decent (albeit extremely far-fetched), in that Francesca learns to stop coveting famous people's lives and starts having self-confidence. Standard chick-lit that will appeal where titles like this are popular.—Lauren Newman, Northern Burlington County Regional Middle School, East Columbus, NJ