Screw Loose

Gr 9 Up—Mean Girls from the Land Down Under meet Francesca Lia Block in this import that features, among other things, a teenage Queen Bee who regularly converses with the members of her Barbie Doll collection; a feral girl who may or may not have been partially raised by dingoes; a heartthrob football star whose new pro career is imperiled when he is photographed kissing a girl who (for reasons impossible to explain) is wearing the clothes of his gay best friend; and the lesbian daughter of a maharaja who is avoiding an arranged marriage with an Indian prince while pursuing an Amazonlike classmate whose mother is the deputy prime minister. The plot (such as it is) seems to have something to do with über-diva Chelsea Dean's attempt to organize a formal dance that will bring together students from her current public school, the Catholic school from which she was expelled, and an exclusive boys' preparatory academy. Complications and misunderstandings abound, and the book is all just as silly and confusing as it sounds, but events, improbable as they are, pull readers relentlessly along, and it's absolutely hilarious. Fluff of the highest order.—Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT