LitPick Review
Despite the title, this book is not just about kissing boys. The real drama lies in the girl taking kissing lessons from her next door neighbor and falling for him. She is doing this because it all falls into her ludicrous master plan of being placed on the varsity soccer team. The protagonist is a junior in high school and has played soccer all of her life. In her freshman and sophomore years, she placed on the junior varsity level and assumed she'd be moved up the next year. She is in a great state of consternation whence she realizes she is still on the junior varsity level due to a lack of room for her on the higher level. To make matters worse, the girl's arch nemesis made the real varsity level and reminds the girl of this every day. This madness ensues when the girl is tormented every day in the hallways. The main character wants to change this by getting the hottest boy in town to come to a school event and approach the varsity girls' soccer kissing booth. There, he will demand that he kiss the main character for three hundred dollars. According to the girl, this will work perfectly and make the coach put her on the team to gain money for the team.
Opinion:
The ABC'S of Kissing Boys" by Tina Ferraro is definitely a teenage drama. If it were ever made into a movie, it would fit into the pigeonholed category of chick-flick. Nevertheless, the plot is very engaging and suspenseful--definitely a page- turner. The main events in the book lie in the girl trying to learn how to kiss. After all, she wants her three hundred dollar kiss to look real in front of her coach, or else she will know that it was all a hoax. There are facetious scenes intertwined into the book (e.g.- the girl buying economy sized boxes of cherries and starbursts candies in a vain attempt to become a kissing pro). Anyway, the girl seeks the help of her hunky next door neighbor. Little does she know that she will eventually end up falling for him. She also does not know that she will eventually make the varsity level for a whole different reason that has nothing to do with kissing boys. The big finale lies in the last twenty pages or so, but it is worth the wait. Ferraro has an ease about her words that is evident in the book. Sentences flow effortlessly and make the pages flutter by.
