Rating: 
Summary: good book for ALL readers
Review: (in response to the amazon.com editorial reviews) Sadly, I read the Sweet Valley High series, and have to admit that I am hooked (embarassing I know but I can't help it). However, this book captivated me. I couldn't put it down and am wishing I had my car so I could drive out and by the second volume. Jonah Black is a captivating junior/senior who has problems that any teenager can relate to: psycho parents, obnoxious siblings, true friends, backstabbing friends, etc. Jonah's confusion between real life and fantasy also gripped me; I want to find out more about what happened up in Philadelphia. So to all you SVH readers out there, don't judge this book based on one review, try it for yourself. You will enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: It will keep you guessing...
Review: *Girls, Girls, Girls* is the first novel in the *Black Book* series by "author" Jonah Black. Jonah shares the first few months of his return to his Florida hometown through his diary. After being kicked out of boarding school in Pennsylvania for mysterious reasons, Jonah is thrust back into his mother's home and life with his younger sister. The novel is very similar to the Georgia Nicholson diary series by Louise Rennison with just as many snorts and giggles throughout.Jonah has the imagination of TV's Ally McBeal and the hormones of a typical 17 year old, and he fantasizes in his diary frequently, whether or not he should be. He reunites with his best friend Posie, the beautiful surfer girl, and Thorne, the hunky ladies' man, his genius sister, Honey, and his teen sex analyst mother. Dealing with the break-up (we think) of his boarding school girlfriend, Sophie, and the demotion to 11th grade, has Jonah in a tail spin. All of which, we are allowed to witness completely. The novel keeps you guessing, and if you like this first novel at all, you'll be rushing to buy the next one, too!
Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant!!
Review: Diary of a teenage stud is one of the best books I've read in a long time, (along with the Alex Rider books by Anthony Horrowitz). It features a typical teenage boy (Jonah) with a punk-rock/gothic genius sister, distant father and a mother who writes books about teenage sex problems. He returns to Florida from boarding school in Pennsylvania and goes back to his old school, only to find out he must repeat the 11ht grade! The book darts between his fantasies and reality, and it seems as though they are the same to Jonah. Through this diary we are taken to the mixed up world of a teenage boy, and we get a glimpse of what really goes on in their minds.
Rating:
Summary: best teen books
Review: Don't over look this book! I read it in 2 days, and then ordered the next three! I'm in the middle of the Fourth right now. Becareful though, before you buy it, make sure you realize that this book is wonderfully writen, but is very real about the life of a teenage boy. You will love it, but not for young ages!
Rating:
Summary: Dr. Jonah Thanks For The Help!
Review: I admit I am a guy who has read this book and I must admit it is very well written. I didn't think I'd like it because I thought it would just be some lame story that girls read but I decided to give it a chance and it was nice to find out that I am not the only one felling some things. Unlike Jonah I don't faze in and out of reality but he does confront some issues that I have and its interesting to read how he handled them. The accuracy is great and I like the AOL Conversations! Thanks for your help Jonah!!!
Rating:
Summary: Finally, teen literature that respects its audience.
Review: I can't remember exactly what it was that first drew my attention to this marvelous little book, whether it was the ambiguous title, the reviews on the back cover (all quotes from characters within the book itself) or the photograph of the torso of a scantily-clad female on the front. Whatever it was, it intrigued me enough that I opened up to a random page, only to find what seemed to me like some sort of stream-of-consciousness first person narrative with several brief, unannounced sexual fantasies seamlessly blended into the storyline. Now even more perplexed and, I'll confess, titillated (in my defense, I am a 16 year-old male) I immediately ran to the computer in the bookstore where I work to see if the book was, in fact, what it appeared to be on first glance. Much to my astonishment, all the reviews I read indicated that it indeed was. It was at this point that I realized that the author listed on the cover was eponymous with the title character and that nowhere in either the book itself or in my bookstore's database was he/she identified any further. Of course, at this point I simply had to sit down and read the whole thing. The book consists of only 236 pages of very quick-reading prose, so the time commitment on my part wasn't more than a couple of hours. It only took me a few pages to get used to the very ambitious conceit employed by the author so it was no time before I began to settle into the life of Mr. Jonah Black. I won't worry about giving away any plot points because it doesn't take long before the book begins to hint at these anyway. As the book opens, the title character believes he is beginning his senior year at Don Shula High School in Florida after having been expelled from a Pennsylvania boarding school he had been attending in order to live closer to his father. Now he is living with his mother, a freakishly accurate portrayal of a best-selling self-help "sexpert" and perfectly unbearable to her two teenage children (her favorite expression seems to be, "are you being nice to yourself?"). Jonah's sister is one year younger than he and a veritable genius who has already skipped one grade at her selective magnet school. She also happens to be the most promiscuous girl in her ZIP code and yet manages to convince her ever so clueless mother that, when she goes to visit the entire football team, it's just to help them all study. Meanwhile, Jonah is in for a surprise on his first day back at school. Apparently, his expulsion from the Pennsylvania boarding school precluded his taking the final examination for his German class, resulting in him receiving a "D" grade for the semester. This does not sit well with the administration of Shula High, which specializes in languages, so he must now repeat the eleventh grade. This puts Jonah in the unenviable position of being one year behind his own "little" sister. To make matters worse, Jonah is having severe difficulties with his relationships with the opposite sex. The extent of his experience seems to be a brief on-line correspondence with a Norwegian university student and an unhealthy obsession with Sophie, the object of the aforementioned sexual fantasies, who may or may not be imaginary. The only real female whom he finds the least bit appealing is his best friend, Posie, who is unfortunately all-but-married to an attractive but rather dense surfer named Wailer.
The book follows Jonah through the first few months of the school year as he attempts to re-establish something resembling a normal life. Jonah drops hints along the way about his sordid past which would serve as motivators for the reader to pay attention and keep up with the story. This proves unnecessary, however, due to the author's considerable skill at engaging the reader with interesting characters and hilarious plot turns. The reader's interest is also preserved by a prose style that is simultaneously down-to-earth without feeling dumbed down, a rarity among current teen fiction. Though certain background details of Jonah's life might invite comparisons to Salinger's Holden Caulfield, the similarities between the two end there. Jonah is, in my mind, a far more believable and attractive character than Holden. He has very little of Holden's irritating self-pitying or self-destructive tendencies. Also, unlike Holden, Jonah does not constantly pass judgment on the entire world but respects the reader's intelligence by allowing him to recognize for himself the absurdities of teenage life without being hit over the head with them incessantly. The Black Book avoids the common pitfall of young adult literature of taking itself too seriously and trying to confront specific "issues". The main character is both likable and realistic and his problems are neither of the superficial, Sweet Valley High variety, nor so exaggeratedly outlandish as to seem far removed from the experiences of most teenagers. And although he is quite introspective and engages in an overactive fantasy life, Jonah is not one of the moody, alienated types that has become such a trite staple of teen literature since Catcher in the Rye and The Outsiders. Above all, though, readers will appreciate The Black Book for its sense of humor, which almost never sinks to the level of American Pie style antics. The author succeeds at a very delicate balancing act of taking the audience deep into the mind of Jonah Black while remaining removed enough to recognize just how hilarious his life is. Teen literature has always been a weak genre, so it's nice to find a new voice in it who knows how to relate to teenagers without being condescending. I heartily recommend this novel to any mature reader of high school age or above. And, though The Black Book ends on a note of unresolved climax, it more than makes up for it with the promise of a sequel to come.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible, Fantastic, Amazing
Review: I don't have enough adjectives in my vocabulary to describe how much I liked this book. I liked the writing, the characters, the story, the mystery, the way reality and fantasy were interwoven. I liked the way the story wasn't too typical but wasn't trying too hard to be weird.
Rating:
Summary: Easy to compare to American Pie
Review: I dont know what drew me to buy this book, maybe how it was about an average american teenager who got in trouble. But throughout the entire thing it wouldn't tell you what he did, but in the end i got a few clues. Jonah and Sophie O'brien were going out while Jonah was going to Masthead. Sophie obviously did something wrong and Jonah took the blame. They got into a car crash, and Jonah burnt all of his diary's containing the evidence that he didnt do what ever it was. Over all this was a good book, though centered on sex and Jonah's love life i still enjoyed it. Posie's a good person who always falls for the players, I wish she'd just wake up and look Jonah's way. The only hard thing i found was telling the difference between his fantasy's and reality.
Rating:
Summary: Jonah Black...THE REVIEW
Review: i first heard about this book from my sis in one of her stupid girl magz. i thought it would be ok so i bought it. after reading one of the entries i couldn't put it down. i ended up finishing it in 2 days. my average on reading a book is usually anywhere from a week to like 4 months. i'm not that big of a reader. when i heard the second volume was out i went out and bought it and ended up finishing it that night. now i'm just sittin around waiting for #3 to come out to find out if jonah and posie ever get it on and all that other stuff. i hope you keep on makin them cause it never gets old.
Rating:
Summary: Cleverly written, and FUN to read!
Review: I had to see what the hype was about - we recently ordered all of Jonah Black's "black books" for our young adult section at the library and I was curious if I would recommend these books to the local teens who come to our library, or not. The answer is a resounding yes! Jonah writes in a very honest, appealing way that made him a deeper, more caring person than any average stud. :) Though there is a lot of mystery surrounding what happened to Jonah at Masthead (a school in Penn. where he was expelled), I didn't feel frustrated by it, because there's plenty of other things going on in Jonah's life as he tries to re-adjust to being a junior (again!) back in Pompano, FLA with friends he hasn't seen for two years, a mother who is becoming famous for her sex advice to teens but who knows nothing about her own children, and a younger, genius sister for whom he obviously has a soft spot. Jonah's daydreams, feelings, thoughts, frustrations and hopes are all cleverly and freshly written - a very satisfying read despite hanging from my toenails at the end!
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