The Boyfriend List

Sarah lives in small Ohio town and spends most of her time as a “theater geek” with her best friend, Demi. This summer, everything heats up when they audition (and get into) a summer camp for theater kids. Though sexual orientation is discussed, the book is quite chaste.

Gretchen Yee, 16, feels painfully ordinary in a school where everyone is an overachiever. She longs to understand what others think of her, and her wish to be a fly on the wall of the boys locker room comes true. She spends a week there observing her classmates, learning and seeing more than she ever expected. With this knowledge, Gretchen gains confidence, which ultimately allows her to be a better person. Although containing some strong language and mature situations, this novel is a good choice for teens who are unsure of their place in the world, including reluctant readers. 

Over the course of one summer, Frankie Landau-Banks, a somewhat geeky girl with an unassuming nature, has developed into a 15-year-old with an attention-grabbing figure, a new attitude, and sights set on making changes at her elite boarding school. The teenager also has a new boyfriend who belongs to a long-standing secret society on campus—The Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds, known mostly for silly pranks and a history of male-only membership. With a witty, sharp, and intelligently scheming mind, Frankie manipulates the Loyal Order to do her bidding with pranks meant to make a political statement about the male-dominated and classist nature of the school. (School Library Journal)