Ellie is starting ninth grade and she"s dead set on finding herself a boyfriend. Her two best friends seem to have all the luck in the love department, but our heroine will stop at nothing to join the ranks. Even if it means pretending her 12-year-old pen pal is her gorgeous, head-over-heels-in-love beau. Naturally, chaos ensues, as it always does when one tries to live a lie, but with Ellie"s dry, self-deprecating wit and the antics of her boy-crazy buddies, this is sure to be a year to remember. Jacqueline Wilson, prolific author of more than 50 books, several of which have been short-listed or runners-up for the Carnegie Medal, pens a hilarious and authentic story about girls in love (or something like it). Readers will eat up the clever wordplay and painfully funny subplots, and will eagerly anticipate the other titles in the sequence, Girls Under Pressure and Girls Out Late. (Ages 12 to 16) --Emilie Coulter