December 04, 2006

Psst! R U There?

This book is a 2006 Cybil Award Nominee for YA Fiction.

Maddie, Zoe and Angela are high school juniors now, and of course, be bff's -- best friends forever. But as the school year unfolds, a few things they hadn't counted on how things like parents, distance -- and the way people change, is throwing the trio for a loop. Angela's Dad has been laid off, and he's been interviewing on the sly... The biggest news to the Winsome Threesome is that Angela's family is moving -- to El Cerrito, California, all the way across the WORLD from Chicago! How is Angela supposed to be a part of the threesome if she's gone?

Meanwhile, Maddie's life continues in the same vein -- she drinks with her parents, macks on guys she meets only once, and parties away. For the first time, though, she's making some decisions that aren't quite as harmless as before. Zoe and Angela are worrying about her. Maddie's guy-hopping lands her Clive, a guy she's made out with and fallen for, but whose easy-going looseness is hard to get a grip on. Does he really like Maddie? Or is he just all about the whole pass-the-doobie, 'friends with benefits' thing? Can Maddie ever get serious enough about herself to tell Clive how she feels? And what then?

Awkward, late-blooming Zoe is falling in love for the first time with Doug -- Doug the sweet poet who has had a crush on Angela for so long that everyone has sort of made a joke out of it, even Angela, who has NEVER had any interest. Zoe is thrilled -- but scared. Now that Angela's gone, she feels like she needs somebody to think of her with faithful longing -- like her old flame, Doug... unfortunately, he's ... busy. With Zoe. And Zoe's too freaked out to tell Angela the truth... which could ruin their friendship forever.

In their abbreviated instant messages or in the ominous silences in between, Mad Maddie, SnowAngel and Zoegirl once again keep the conversation flowing in ttfn, a mostly stand-alone sequel about three best friends who share everything -- the smileys, the frownies, and the chatroom.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

To El Cerrito? HAHAHAHA! Sorry. That amuses me, since we used to live there.

Random trivia--know who else is from El Cerrito? John Fogerty (of Creedence Clearwater Revival).

Anonymous said...

You are a treasure trove of information... if only you'd been in the story, it would've been a marked improvement.

Somehow, moving to El Cerrito hardly constitutes a tragedy except... that you'd wake up living in El Cerrito!!!

Anonymous said...

Let's just say it depends on which side of San Pablo Ave. you happen to live on. East of = nice hilly neighborhoods which adjoin Kensington. West of = wrong side of tracks.

Of course, we lived ON San Pablo, which was weird. On San Pablo, above a strip mall.