ABC's of Kissing Boys by Tina Ferraro

From the Publisher

Parker Stanhope has played soccer practically since she could walk. And now that she’s a high school junior, everything she’s worked for is finally coming together. She’s paid her dues on the field, and as an upperclassman, she’s a shoo-in for the varsity team. But that’s not what happens.

This year, Coach Hartley moved up every JV player but two—and one of those two was Parker. Now, she’s stuck with the freshmen, her friends are cutting her loose, and her love of the game is seriously beginning to fail. But Parker is determined to get her life back. She has to get on the varsity team, and she has the perfect plan. All she needs now is the right kind of coach.

Tina Ferraro lives in southern California. You can visit her online at www.tinaferraro.com.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Children's Literature

Sixteen-year-old Parker Stanhope has played soccer practically from the time she could walk. But Coach Hartley has not moved her up from JV. She is now a high school junior and must get on the varsity team. She may lose her friends. She has a plan and wants to trick her way into the kissing booth at the annual sports fair—but the kisses have to look real and she is less than experienced at doing it. She has to find the right coach. Parker takes kissing lessons from the freshman across the street as part of her plan to get on the varsity soccer team. A relationship blossoms that threatens her popularity at school and that also must be kept secret from their feuding fathers. The sequence of events will make the story interesting to young readers. The chapter headings with the kiss descriptions will be also give some spark to the book. Reviewer: Naomi Butler

School Library Journal

Gr 6-10

Parker Stanhope only wants one thing-to be on her school's varsity soccer team with all of her friends. What she actually gets is another year on junior varsity surrounded by freshmen and the brush-off from her so-called friends. In response to this depressing series of events, Parker comes up with a foolproof plan to get back on the team that involves her older brother's friend, an annual carnival, $300, and a kiss that the whole school will see. Along the way she meets Tristan, her cuter than cute neighbor, who, after hearing her desperate situation, offers to give her kissing lessons to make that big final kiss look and seem totally believable. As you'd expect, these "lessons" turn into much more than just a teaching situation. Unfortunately, this story-girl ends up liking the guy she least expected to with some madcap adventures along the way-has been told before. Parker's voice doesn't come across as real; she sounds more like how adults think teenagers would talk instead of how they actually do. For a better "I can't believe I'm falling for this guy!" book, suggest Robin Benway's Audrey, Wait! (Penguin, 2008). An additional purchase for libraries with a well-used chick-lit section.-Traci Glass, Eugene Public Library, OR

Kirkus Reviews

When Parker fails to make the varsity soccer team, she finds herself on precarious footing with Chrissandra, her best friend and the bitchy queen bee of the junior class. As her frenemy makes life increasingly difficult at school, Parker hatches an implausible plot to essentially bribe the coach into promoting her by bringing in the most money at the soccer team's kissing-booth fundraiser. The catch? She doesn't know how to kiss. Enter Tristan, the freshman next door and the son of her father's neighborhood nemesis, who provides kissing lessons and complicates both Parker's struggle for social standing and her understanding of herself. Although some plot elements are weak-the subplot involving the father and his adversary feels forced, and Tristan, like other characters, is underdeveloped-the novel nonetheless accurately captures the acute anxiety and dread experienced by ostracized teens. This is familiar territory for anyone who's seen Mean Girls, but Ferraro's protagonist is resilient enough to withstand and prevail over her tormentors. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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