Withering Tights

Fans of Rennison's Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series will not be disappointed when they meet Tallulah Casey, Georgia's younger cousin. Armed with only her sense of humor, long legs, "nobbly kneecaps," and a tendency to break into Irish dancing when she's nervous, fourteen-year-old Tallulah has chosen to attend Dother Hall's performing arts summer school in the Yorkshire Dales. She quickly makes friends, all as boy-obsessed as Lullah, who aren't short on love interests: in addition to the boys at nearby Woolfe Academy, there's the pub owner's son, Alex, and local bad-boy Cain and his brothers to set their sights on. But Lullah's biggest challenge will be garnering self-confidence and discovering what her hidden talents are if she wishes to stay on at Dother Hall permanently. Lullah's madcap adventures (e.g., creating a biker ballet called "Sugar Plum Bikey"), her literary musings referencing Jane Eyre, James Bond, and of course, Wuthering Heights (Lullah portrays Heathcliff in the end-of-summer production), and her naive inner monologues are all highly entertaining; Rennison's knack for relating them is spot-on. Rennison fills the book with hilarious episodes such as the scene where Tallulah worries about being "corkerless" (her term for being minus "lady chest bits") and decides to rub them to make them grow. As with the Georgia books, an amusing glossary of Briticisms and Tallulah's own made-up phrases is appended. This Brit lit romp through the moors will leave readers looking forward to next term and more Tallulah. Cynthia K. Ritter