Confessions of a Not it Girl

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and encouraging
Review: An older brother's thoughts
As a twenty-three year old man, I am hardly within Confessions' target audience. I gave the book to my younger sister for her birthday and planned to just skim the book before purchasing it. I found myself unable to tear my eyes from the page - rooting for Jahn, the "Not it girl," and laughing out loud right there in the store.

My sister Jessica is about to enter high school and is in a vulnerable stage of her life. Confessions is the kind of book I want her to be reading. It's a book about teenage girls who stand up for themselves, who want to do well in school but also have social lives, and who have to make it through adolescence with all of its thrills and complicated challenges. I am so glad that Jessica loved this book. She can't wait for Melissa Kantor's next book to come out, and I can't either.


Rating:
Summary: this book is funny!
Review: Confessions is hilarious. I picked it up expecting to just skim the first couple of pages but I was a. laughing so much and b. so identified with the main character that i just had to buy it and keep reading. Most teen heroines are so cutesy and happy all the time and if they're not, well, they're just perfect looking and that makes them annoying anyway. Jan is a character you can really relate to, she's smart and cynical (but not annoyingly so) and it's just a pleasure to root for her. And the depiction of rich teen's lives in NYC is dead-on.

Rating:
Summary: Hilarious Kantor Banter
Review: Confessions of a Not It Girl starts off with a quiz, introducing you to Jan Miller. Jan, named after a favorite artist, is supposed to be pronounced "Yahn," but does not correct people when they call her "Jan." In fact, she prefers it.

Thankfully, neither she nor this book are a "Yahn." Jan's series of adventures in babysitting lead her to fall for her charge's older brother -- a male classmate that Jan hadn't looked twice at before. Suddenly, he's the object of her affection. Jan must balance this new crush with school, college applications and procrastinations, not to mention her best friend being named a New York "It Girl."

Kudos to Melissa Kantor for giving us a teen romantic comedy that is both funny and clean. The writing is fresh and modern without relying too heavily on pop culture references, so it will stand the test of time. It will appeal to adults and teenagers alike, as Jan is G-rated enough for the younger set but she is also fumbling and quirky enough for the twentysomethings trying to make their way through.

If you like the lively pace of books like Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen, The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot and the Gossip Girl series, you will love Confessions of a Not It Girl. Give it a try and you'll find yourself laughing almost immediately.

Rating:
Summary: Unimpressive, but harmless teen novel
Review: Confessions Of A Not-It Girl definitely has an eye-catching cover and a clever title. This is what led me to purchase it on an impulse buy during my latest visit to the book store.

However, the story itself -- if one dares to call it that -- didn't live up to the expectations that it promised. Given the title and the fact that author Melissa Kantor is a high school teacher, I expected this to be a fun story, told from the point of view of an outside, on the dynamics of the high school experience. What I got, however, was a 250-page whiny rant from a rich, spoiled, teen princess.

Don't get me wrong -- Ms. Kantor is a fantastic writer. Her descriptions are vivid and her dialogue is spot-on. Where she failed, though, was in creating LIKEABLE characters. Jan, the narrator, is just completely uninteresting. She has no hobbies, no interests, no ambitions, no PASSSIONS, other than snagging Josh, her current crush. She half-heartedly attends school and applies for colleges, mainly to get her parents off of her back. But while this is understandable (after all, how many teens really enjoy school?), it's her self-centerdness that really bugged me. This girl came from a relatively wealthy, stable family, yet all she did was drone on and on about her love life. Getting makeup on her chin was a major crisis; for teens who've dealt with much more serious problems, her shallowness was laughable. At first, I related to her, but after about 20 pages of hearing her bitch about her big butt, I wanted to tape her mouth shut.

I could've forgiven her actions had there been more to the character, but she was just boring. Other teen books feature young women obssessing over their crushes -- that's natural -- but what sets them apart from this one is that the characters come alive off of the page. Look at the Traveling Pants series, or any of Meg Cabot's books, for example. The girls in those novels dream of love and being popular, but they also have interests and stories that take them beyond the high school arena. Those works had an extra "something" to them - that element that took them from being a generic story about high school life to being books worth talking about.

Kantor has a bright future ahead of her. Like I said, she's obviously talented and has a great idea of what teen life is like. She just needs to come up with a decent story to back up her abilities.

Rating:
Summary: It's A GREAT Book!!!
Review: I just finished reading "confessions of a NOT IT Girl".. I rarely read books, but when I saw the book in the store, and read what it was about, it seemed interesting.. Once I started reading it.. I couldn't put it down...Every detail and event in the story made me want to read it more and more..Melissa Kantor really showed what really goes through the minds of teenage girls and I thought that was awesome, becuz I also find myself thinking the same thing that jan was thinking in the book. It's a great book... and I think every teenage girl should read it.. especially the ones, like myself, that have trouble telling people how they feel, or thinking there not as cool as there friends or what not... cuz it really shows you that your not alone in those particular situations.. I think there should definatley be a sequal..

Rating:
Summary: Big Fun in the Big Apple
Review: I loved this book! I live in New York and couldn't believe how Melissa Kantor the author gets what life is like here perfectly. It's really funny, too, and the story makes you want to read it. A GREAT book.

Rating:
Summary: An AMAZING read!
Review: I read "Confessions of a Not It Girl" in one day. It was one of those books you cannot put down because you have to find out what happens to the main character. When I got to the end, I just sat there smiling. I'm telling everyone I know to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: a fun (and funny) read
Review: i read "confessions of a not it girl" in one sitting. it's a great read -- by turns wry and poignant -- and i would recommend it to any teenage girl, or anyone who once was one.

Rating:
Summary: This is the best YA novel I've read in years
Review: It is rare to find a YA author with the wit of Ms. Kantor. I loved Jan Miller's character and her best friend Rebecca. I taught at a private school for several years and these girls resonated with my own experiences. I am always looking for engaging YA novels to recommend to my 7th and 9th grade students and this one is one of the best I've read in years!

Rating:
Summary: Priceless
Review: Jan (say "Yahn") has decided she's in love with Josh, although she started out calling him a loser. Hindrances block true love's way: Her previous crush is chasing her, she can't quite TALK to Josh, he keeps referring to another girl, and he tries to hook her up with his loser cousin. Worst of all, is he even remotely interested in Jan? As she struggles with the basics of romance, her best friend Rebecca (recently named one of CHIC magazine's New York "IT" Girls) smoothly hooks up with a gorgeous older man ... wouldn't you just know it?

Jan's hardships don't end with the Josh conundrum. Her parents are irritating, her butt is enormous, and college application deadlines are zooming up. To escape from her many tragedies, Jan dreams up little one-act scenes, usually involving Josh declaring his undying love for her while her hair looks perfect (for once).

The plot of this book isn't startlingly original, but the delivery is absolutely priceless. At the beginning of CONFESSIONS OF A NOT IT GIRL, after laughing approximately ten times a page, I decided to keep track of my favorite funny bits. By page 18, I had writer's cramp. Should I mention how Jan, acting out with Josh a scene from Romeo and Juliet in English class, opens her mouth, puckers her lips, and waits for a real kiss (Romeo doesn't kiss her)? Or should it be her struggle to find the perfect outfit to baby-sit Josh's sibling? "With only forty-nine hours to put together an outfit that said both 'I am a responsible baby-sitter who will not abandon your child to pursue pleasures of the flesh' and 'I am a sexual dynamo,' I headed upstairs to evaluate my options." Or maybe I should go with Jan's description of her hair: exactly like the Great Pyramid at Giza. Or...

No. Really. Must. Stop. Now.

I laughed so often and so hard that folks in my reading vicinity exhibited alarm for my mental health: "Honey? Can I get you something? Like a drink of water? Or a psychiatrist?" Suffice to say, this is the funniest book I've read in ages. Totally enjoyable!

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon ([e-mail])