What My Girlfriend Doesn't Know » (Reprint)

My name is Robin.

This book is about me.
It tells the story of what happens
when after almost 15 pathetic years of loserdom,
the girl of my dreams finally falls for me.

That seems like it would be
a good thing, right?
Only it turns out to be
a lot more complicated than that

Because I'm not gonna lie to you --
there are naked women involved.
Four of them, to be exact.
Though not in the way you might think.

Don't get me wrong -- my girlfriend's amazing.
But the way things have been going lately,
I'm starting to believe that the only thing worse
than not getting what you want,

is getting it.

Publishers Weekly

Returning with a sequel to the well- received What My Mother Doesn't Know, Sones delivers another engaging story about young love, this time from the boy's perspective. This free-verse novel opens with 14-year-old Robin worrying that he will soon be dumped by his girlfriend, Sophie (star of the previous book), who is being ostracized at school for dating "the guy whose last name people use as a diss." ("Let's face it./ I'm the type of guy/ who doesn't even have any buddies/ on my buddy list," Robin says.) But Sophie is her own person and together they form a plan to rise above the derision by laughing at themselves. Robin is believable and endearing as he struggles to make sense of his devotion to his "amazing girlfriend," his nascent sexuality and his attraction to Tessa, a girl in his art class at Harvard who is refreshingly unaware that he is the butt of jokes at his high school. When Sophie catches him kissing Tessa, Robin has to do something dramatic to win her back. Concrete poems and comics punctuate the text, adding interest to the form. The author's fans will be delighted to have a new installment written with the same raw honesty and authentic voice as the original. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 12-up. (June)