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SEX and drugs and a whole lotta F-words: Welcome to the brave new world of young-adult fiction. And you thought some of Judy Blume's books were racy.
Yet writers and readers alike argue that in this MTV-wise world we're living in, these new books for kids ages 12 and older are merely telling it like it is.
Wherever you stand on this, it makes sense that teens will be more inclined to read if they can find something they can identify with. Not that all the new books out there are edgy; a few manage to be interesting even with no sex, drugs and profanity at all. Amazing!
Here are a few of our favorites, culled from the latest crop of young-adult fiction, complete with our rating guide - from 1 to 4, with 4 being the most excessive - to warn the squeamish. (Parents, that would be you.)
"Theodora Twist"
by Melissa Senate
(Delacorte Press, $15.95)
Anything but sugarcoated, "Theodora Twist" is a realistically raw, yet endearing story from the perspectives of two very different girls. Theodora Twist is Hollywood's hottest young actress, and the tabloids' favorite target. Emily Fine is a very average 16-year-old from Oak City, N.J.
When the Lindsay Lohan-ish Theodora needs a miracle to save her smeared public persona, along comes "Theodora Twist: Just a Regular Teen!," a reality show that lands her at Emily's home.
Though Senate may have struggled to find a familiar voice for her young characters, "Twist" is a poignant reality check for starry-eyed teens. She tells a story of the extreme and the all-too "normal" of two very different girls fighting their own battles, who don't realize that what they really need in life is a good friend, until they find it in each other.
Though it may catch young readers' fancy in the same off-color manner as a tabloid, parents of pre-teens should be warned of the book's rather explicit sexual content.
"Frogs & French Kisses"
by Sarah Mlynowsky
(Delacorte Press, $15.95)
In this follow-up to Mlynowski's "Bras and Broomsticks," Rachel - a self-proclaimed freshman "Z-lister," and the only female in her family without magical powers - faces a nasty new brew of problems.
The ensuing story is a creative, frolicsome tale of high-school life, with a bewitching twist.
Rachel's uphill battle for a socially acceptable life at JFK High School is made worse when her best and only friend, Tammy, is out with mono. And at home, her once "non-practicing" mother is now addicted to magic, and her sister's love spells and incantations are going dangerously awry.
As she narrates these fiascoes, Rachel's sarcastically melodramatic voice will resonate with and amuse teen readers while offering more grounded lessons of love, family and responsibility in a breezy manner that will keep the young teen audience engaged as well as entertained. Even if they haven't read the first, young readers will find themselves quickly swept away on the broomstick of Mlynowski's second installment.
"Being Bindy"
by Alyssa Brugman
(Delacorte Press, $15.95)
Bindy's once very predictable eighth-grade life is changing - too much, and too quickly. She and best friend Janey have been inseparable since kindergarten, but her once steadfast sidekick is starting to mix with a new crowd, ditching a lifetime of friendship for what seem like all the wrong reasons. As if the loss alone weren't hard enough, nothing could have prepared Bindy for the calamities that ensue when her father and Janey's mother begin to date - and she ends up the target for all of "new and improved" Janey's fury.
Aussie author Brugman's depiction of adolescence is flawless - she pours the perfect amounts of naivete, angst, rebellion and confounded emotions into her characters, as the story plays out so comprehensibly that the reader feels a part of it.
Her storytelling is full of Australian charm and tickling witticism, though it also presents profound real-life situations - Bindy's experience is affecting.
The result is a wonderful piece of fiction for teen and pre-teen girls.
"The Manny Files"
by Christian Burch
(Simon & Schuster, $15.95)
Christian Burch's "The Manny Files" kicks Mary Poppins to the curb, providing a story for readers who think magic and flying umbrellas are passé.
Keats Dallinger has been the smallest kid in his class for as long as he can remember, and as far as he's concerned, he's also the least noticeable of his siblings - sisters who are an overachiever, a style genius and a baby, Belle, (who gets noticed just for being the baby). At school, Keats sits behind a red-headed giant of a girl who prevents his teacher from even seeing him in class. But it all seems to change when his parents hire a new nanny - a manny! A manny who serves meals under the kitchen table and packs school lunches complete with a raw coconut inscribed with the words, "Be Interesting." Keats loves the fact that someone finally notices him simply for being himself instead of just being a little brother. "The Manny Files" has a little something for anyone who is or ever was looking out onto a larger world from the confines of the third grade. And it's a safe read for the younger reader.
"King Dork"
by Frank Portman
(Delacorte, $16.95)
Hillmont High student Tom Henderson and his "alphabetical order" buddy Sam Hellerman find themselves on the bottom rung of the rigidly class-sensitive social ladder at school. In the midst of concocting ever-changing names for a band that will seemingly never get beyond the album cover-art stage, watching Sam pass out after swiping a sample of his mom's Vicodin and trying to avoid being ritualistically beaten up, Tom discovers a cache of his late father's old books, including J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye." Although he carries a copy with him at all times, Tom swears time and time again that he can't stand the book, and despises even more the closet cult of young "pre-meltdown" teachers and "suck-up" students that has formed around it. The complex and morose protagonist in Frank Portman's "King Dork" provides a window into what it would be like if Holden Caulfield read "The Catcher in the Rye."
It very honestly portrays quiet contempt for burnt-out teachers, the stumbling first steps into teen sexuality and the casual use of drugs to escape the drudgery of high school.
"Shooting Stars Everywhere"
by Martina Wildner
(Random House, $15.95)
During the six-week marathon of boredom that is Victor's summer vacation, there's little more to do than catalog the events of each day in the journal that his divorced, taxi-driver dad gave him for his 13th birthday. That summer, strange letters appear in Victor's mailbox, his friend's beloved cocker spaniel dies - and Victor, who's terrified at the thought of jumping off the 10-meter diving platform, meets a red-haired girl named D who dives like a dream.
This story, translated from the original German, has essentially nothing in the way of adult content, remaining an innocent tale about the transition out of childhood innocence. "Shooting Stars Everywhere" is a story for anyone who's ever been bored, lonely and 13 years old.
Copyright 2004 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
