Reviews provided by Syndetics
Publishers Weekly Review
Ruby Oliver, the smart, neurotic heroine from The Boyfriend List, is now 16 and a junior scholarship student at Tate Prep. She's still in therapy, and still trying to cope with losing her boyfriend to her best friend plus her new social standing as a "certifiable leper." Through sessions with Dr. Z and spending time with "The Boy Book" (a "Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them" this also serves as the novel's subtitle), which she wrote with Kim, Nora and another friend, Ruby begins to process what happened. She builds a new circle of friends, even rekindling her friendship with Nora. But she faces tests along the way: Ruby's ex leaves her flirty notes, even though he is with Kim; she has a panic attack after a confrontation with Kim; and she must decide what to do when the great guy that Nora likes tells Ruby he wants to kiss her. Each chapter begins with an excerpt from "The Boy Book," which is hilarious, and sometimes rather racy (e.g., "What to Wear When You Might Be Fooling Around" advises a "shirt that buttons up the front, for obvious reasons"). The book not only covers topics teens obsess over, but it helps illustrate the connection Ruby had with her friends, especially Kim, and what a loss she has suffered. Ruby's overanalytical, fast-paced and authentic narration will win over new devotees, while her loyal fans will no doubt hope for more. Ages 12-up. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-Ruby, first introduced in The Boyfriend List (Delacorte, 2005), continues to narrate the events in her life at Tate Prep. Interspersed throughout the story are excerpts from The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them, a journal written by the teen and her friends in years past. Ruby is now in her junior year and discovering that there is life after a boyfriend breakup and the loss of previous friends for not following "The Rules for Dating." She discovers that she can make new friends, reconnect with some of her old ones, and simply accept that some people are lost forever. She continues therapy with Dr. Z. and gains control over her panic attacks. The story is both humorous and witty, and the language is realistically raw. Sections such as "The Care and Ownership of Boobs" are particularly funny. Teens will relate to the situations that Ruby finds herself in and learn from her skills about how to cope with the "minefield" of crises that today's teens face.-Sheilah Kosco, Bastrop Public Library, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
This sequel to The Boyfriend List (2004) finds Ruby Oliver starting her junior year still dealing with her fall from popularity. Following therapist Dr. Z's suggestion to find a new activity, Ruby gets an internship at the zoo, but she still obsesses over lost friendships and boyfriends. However, somewhere between rereading the advice in the Boy Book, an advice journal that she started with her ex-friends years before, and living in the present, she discovers she's ready to move on to new friends and opportunities. Ruby's intimate, first-person narrative, which includes a few sexual references, is lively, descriptive, frequently humorous, and peppered with periodic footnotes. Readers will easily relate to the dialogue and the situations Ruby copes with, including peer pressure and relationship breakups. Each chapter begins with a Boy Book entry--from the opening Care and Ownership of Boobs to Clever Comebacks to Catcalls --which reflects Ruby's continuing process of self-discovery and personal growth. --Shelle Rosenfeld Copyright 2006 Booklist
Kirkus Book Review
Shunned by her friends and ignored by her ex, Ruby Oliver experiences a rough junior year as she deals with fallout from her previous adventure in The Boyfriend List (2005), when she kissed her best friend's boyfriend--a definite infraction of The Boy Book's rules. The Boy Book, written by Ruby and her four ex-friends in sunnier times, is their quirky, funny and mostly chaste observations of boys and relationship rules. Snippets from the girls' writings open and structure each chapter as Ruby strives to shake her "leper" status, but also provide a sincere account of their friendships and perceptions of sexuality. As the second Ruby Oliver installment, new readers may feel slightly off balance as they grapple with understanding and defining Ruby's character, since Lockhart doesn't dwell on details presented earlier. Yet Ruby's lack of definition rings true as her character's strength stems from her earnest search for identity through introspection, sexual experimentation, therapy and the formation and rehabbing of new and old friendships. Refreshingly honest. (Fiction. YA) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.