Grade 7-10-This bitingly witty novel reads like a cross between Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (Viking, 1998) and Sue Townsend's The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13-3/4 (Avon, 1984). It's tough to feel properly appreciated for your questing and artistic soul when you're surrounded by shallow, lifeless, and "v. boring" parents. And so, Janet Foley Bandry, age 16, decides to embark on the "Dark Phase" of her life by exploring her creative nature, nurturing her passionate soul, and wearing only black and purple. She goes through typical teen self-absorption, which is relieved only by hour-long conversations with her best friend and soul mate, Disha, and they dissect every nuance of everything they've endured, usually incorrectly. But somehow over the course of five months, during which time Janet suffers many indignities and humiliations and her parents separate, it looks like the drama queen of "Planet Janet" is actually starting to become a little bit more compassionate and grown up. Meg Cabot's fans will enjoy this lightweight foray into British teen melodrama.

Susan Riley, Mount Kisco Public Library, NY

Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Gr. 6-10. Like Lola in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (1999), Sheldon's latest heroine, Janet, is a dramatic, misunderstood, and hilarious teen. Attempting to transcend life's "mundane crap" and develop her "questing soul," Janet, accompanied by best friend, Disha, enters her "Dark Phase," which is marked by dark clothing, literary posturing, and calculated pursuit of Elvin, an aspiring teen filmmaker. Meanwhile, life at home in London grows increasingly rocky. When her parents' normal fights erupt into full crisis, Janet is forced to step outside her self-absorbed "planet" and confront her family's painful truths. Writing in diary form, Janet tells her own story in explosively funny, self-centered observations and language sparked with Briticisms, which are defined in a glossary. Teens weathering their own family dramas may wish that Janet would allow more moments of honest hurt to show through the angst-tinged comedy. But the fast-paced, clever writing, startlingly similar to Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging (2000) and its sequels, will keep teens eagerly reading and sharing passages with each other to the end. Gillian Engberg

Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.