Instructions for a Broken Heart

Gr 8 Up—Things are going great for Broadway-obsessed Jessa Gardner. She's on the right track to getting into a good college, what with her AP classes, SAT prep, sports, part-time job, and roles in all the school plays and musicals. Then she catches her boyfriend making out with another girl. To make matters worse, Jessa and Sean are slated to tour Italy with the drama club, along with the girl he was caught kissing. Luckily, her good friend Tyler is there for her. Her best friend, Carissa, has given her a package entitled the "Top Twenty Reasons He's a Slimy Jerk Bastard," complete with instructions for getting over Sean, most of which force her to step outside her comfort zone. At times, they are funny and liberating, as when she throws an orange soda in Sean's face. At other times, Jessa just embarrasses herself, and readers are left wondering why Carissa would ask her to do such things and why she would blindly comply. In the end, though, Jessa realizes that Sean wasn't the perfect boyfriend she had made him out to be. In the process, she does a lot of soul-searching, realizing that she doesn't really know who she is or what she wants to do with her life. This is a scary realization for the goal-driven teen, but a necessary one to help her grow. Although the book meanders and teeters on melodrama, ultimately it's a good choice for girls who have had their hearts broken and thought they would never be able to pick up the pieces.—Lauren Newman, Northern Burlington County Regional Middle School, Columbus, NJ