This Is My Brain on Boys

Gr 9 Up—Addie Emerson attends a private high school, Academy 355, near Boston. She and her lab partner, Dexter, are competing for the prestigious Athenian award, which would finance Addie's college education. She and Dexter are trying to manipulate the human brain to make their subjects fall in love. After researching and conducting one trial, Addie believes she has successfully guided two students to fall in love by placing them in life-threatening situations. She needs to prove this theory by conducting one last experiment. Kris Condos enters the picture. He is on probation and is working off his crime against the school—vandalism. The dean of students has assigned Kris to Addie's experiment. Addie, however, seems to be the only person attending Academy 355 who does not know about Kris's involvement in wrecking the school's science lab. As the trials take place, Addie gains a new understanding of the world around her. Through her struggles, Addie grows and perseveres. Readers will enjoy the twist at the end of the story. Strohmeyer has created an enjoyable realistic fiction title with a believable, smart protagonist who has a difficult time interacting with the world around her because of her intellect. Although the writing style is complex, the theme is universal. The scientific approach the author injects into this romance puts a new spin on this overtaxed genre. Because the vocabulary is reflective of the main character's intellect, this would probably not be a book to recommend to reluctant readers.