Smart Boys and Fast Girls

Smart Boys and Fast Girls

by Stephanie Davis
Published by Smooch, NY
2005
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Plot Summary

This is the story of senior varsity track runner, Natalie. She believes that the most important thing to her life is to be seen as popular, smart and no longer single. Her success on the running team is her ticket it all; she'll become friends with the popular team captain, and catch the attention of heart throb, Zach, the captain on the senior boys varsity team.
Because of failing math grades, Natalie is in danger of being dropped from the team. Her coach and math instructor have arranged for Natalie to be tutored by her bookish and somewhat geeky classmate Matt. Ashamed of her failing grades, and with the fear that everybody will know that she is 'stupid', she pretends to be Matt's girlfriend.
Natalie likes the attention her new 'boyfriend' gets her, her closest girlfriends all have steady boyfriends and she finds herself being included in their group dates. On top of this inclusion, Zach has suddenly expressed interest in her and wants to start dating her. However, she finds that she likes being Matt's 'pretend girlfriend' and is faced with having to listen to her true feelings, and be with Matt, at the risk of being perceived as un 'cool'.

Comments

This is a typical teenage romance novel:
girl likes popular boy, but
girl is stuck in a mandatory situation with a gawky boy,
girl falls for gawky boy,
cool boy starts to like girl
girl makes a 'hard' decision
girl and gawky boy live happily ever after

The story is well written, the characters are likeable, however the circumstances that Natalie gets herself into are unbelievable. This book is a classic example of the scripted, purely make-belief Hollywood romance ideals that permeate North American society. I believe that this sort of imaginary/real life drama can only be a detriment to young girls. True love is not what this romance novels make it out to be.

The book does offer some naturalistic insights, it depicts the sometimes caddy and insensitive interactions that girls have with each other. Davis also takes a sensitive approach to the high school classroom and tries to get the reader to see and accept all types of people, whether they are jocky sporty types, gothic dressers or smart brainy people.

Overall, I would not recommend this book. I guess I'm just not a sap for teen romance.

Age Range - 13-18

Ranking