Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Revenge of the Geek-Piper Banks

Revenge of the Geek
Piper Banks
NAL, Nov 2 2010, $9.99
ISBN: 9780451231345

Miranda Bloom is a genius who enjoys school. However, the brilliant Miranda feels this semester as a junior at Geek High will hurt. Her La Crosse playing boyfriend Dex McConnell (see Summer of the Geek for when they met) is going away to a boarding school in Maine.

Miranda turns to her two BFFs, Finn and Charlie, but they have problems too so she does not want to burden them with her depression. She becomes friends with reticent new student Nora Lee. However, that makes her more depressed when Nora seems to be on a quest to prove she is Miranda’s superior in anything and everything the latter does with acclaim. Still, her competitive juices flow as Miranda decides to teach this copycat that imitation is the highest form of flattery and can only achieve second place to the originator.

The fourth Geek High teen tale (see Geek High and Geek Abroad; neither read by me) is an intelligent entertaining entry as Miranda struggles with new personal, social and family issues not easily resolved without honest communication for instance the gender war between her two best friends each trying to pull her onto their side. Young adult readers will appreciate Miranda's success and failures as her attempts to reach out to the newcomer turns ugly (shades of Clueless) and family decisions by her have come home to roost while tennis looks almost as good as lacrosse.

Harriet Klausner

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