Amelia O'Donohue Is So Not a Virgin

Gr 8—11—Rachel Ross wants nothing more than to escape her life on a remote Scottish Island, so she focuses on getting top marks so she can enroll at Aberfeldy Halls. Although her parents tell her to leave the matter to the Lord, when the teen is caught with a local boy, they announce that she will attend the elite boarding school. Rachel is recognized as someone who never repeats secrets, and her schoolmates line up to share theirs with her. Before long, though, she retreats from the other girls to devote herself to her studies. A few days before finals, Rachel finds a newborn hidden in a linen closet. She decides to determine who the mother is, intending to help the young woman cope, and talks beautiful, popular Amelia O'Donohue into joining her to solve the mystery. This novel suffers from a split personality; in part it is the well-drawn story of an internal journey, with Rachel's barren emotional life set against the island's bleakness and her parents' piety. It is also reminiscent of Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging (HarperCollins, 2000), with humorous depictions of the girls' high jinks and liberal use of slang. Unfortunately, the story careens between these two sensibilities throughout. Staging a comical "caper" around locating the desperate mother creates a sense of unease in readers that makes the scene largely unbelievable. Because the mood of the book shifts in these diverse directions, the message loses its potential impact and becomes little more than an uneven sum of its parts.—Karen Elliott, Grafton High School, WI