by Brent Crawford
ages: 14+
First sentence: “On the last day of school, I’m happily strolling down the hall after Mr. Rumpford’s ridiculously hard algebra final.”
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I picked this one up, initially, because the inscription on the back made me laugh:

Warning: This book is intended for immature audiences. If you find teen guys annoying and/or disgusting, this may not be the book for you. There’s gotta be something about a cute wizard or moody vampire around here… Go find it!

I kept reading it because, like Carter Finally Gets It, this one is very guy. Very guy. And yet, it’s also very sweet. Crawford walks the line between immature and wise incredibly well, and manages to tell a good story with a lot of heart. I know: don’t tell the guys.

Carter’s made it through his freshman year, coming out in style: he’s passed his classes, starred in the musical, has a girlfriend. All he wants to do is hang with his “boys” at the pool this summer. And, of course, karma/fate/adults get in his way. Turns out that a local boy who’s made it big is filming a movie of his book in town, and he wants to cast locals as the lead. Carter tries out, and — because he’s just lucky — gets the lead opposite the famous starlet Hilary Idaho (side note: how lame a name is that? Totally obvious, but it works.). There goes the easy summer he’d planned.

At first, working on a movie and hanging out with Hilary is totally awesome, but things go sour pretty quick (because it is Carter after all). Carter’s girlfriend, Abby, breaks up with him. Hilary is a lot to manage, to say the least. The whole movie-making experience isn’t quite what it’s cracked up to be. And he decided, for better or worse (generally the latter), that he’s much to “good” for his family. Of course there will be a lot of mishaps along the way. Of course things will work out for the best in the end. And of course you will find yourself rooting for Carter whole heartedly. Because, even though he’s very guy, he’s what makes this book completely worth reading. (Even if you’re a mom of four girls and are terrified by the guyness of it all.) Crawford has created a character so honest, so real, and so unpretentious (and yes, there are stereotypes in there, and yes, I like most of the girls as well, especially his sister, Lynne) that you can’t help but enjoy the journey.

And that means I’m quite interested to see what happens to Carter next.