How To Make Out

Gr 9 Up—This laugh-out-loud coming-of- age novel engages readers immediately and never lets go. Renley's best friend April and her neighbor Drew provide the protagonist with support as she decides to run a paid blog to raise money for a math club trip to New York. As Renley survives cooking class (she prefers classrooms she cannot set on fire and would rather be solving for x), she comes up with answers to common questions she finds on Google. Soon her anonymous blog is a bigger hit than she ever imagined, but there are some questions she finds that she will never answer. How far will she go to uncover answers to some of the other questions? This book distinguishes itself with peripheral characters who are also well-developed and support Renley and the fast-paced plot. Shrum addresses many bildungsroman issues throughout the narrative in a believable and interesting way and still manages to pull off a thought-provoking story that will let young adults understand and relate to Renley's many crises and how she comes to handle them.