cover image Jon & Jayne’s Guide to Making Friends & “Getting” the Guy (or Girl)

Jon & Jayne’s Guide to Making Friends & “Getting” the Guy (or Girl)

Jon Doe, Jayne Doe, . . HCI, $9.95 (119pp) ISBN 978-0-7573-0659-4

Launching a series of advice books for teens, this guide introduces fictional teens Jon and Jayne, “your average but xtraordinary friends.” The title notwithstanding, the focus here is mainly on platonic friendships and the associated issues of fitting in at school, building confidence, initiating conversations, and dealing with rumors and gossip. Although the narrative tries too hard to ape teenspeak, notably by shifting in and out of IM-lingo (“Things like... how to b tru to yourself seem so basic... that we might not even consciously think about them”), the advice is mostly level-headed. Sometimes the logic is circular (advice on impressing a boy includes “smile a lot and flirt a bit”), but elsewhere the writing is unusually pragmatic. For example, while the authors issue the obvious warnings about cliques (“You and your friends may be limiting yourselves socially”), they acknowledge the perks of belonging; instead of telling readers to avoid cliques, they offer more realistic strategies for managing the pitfalls. A practicing psychologist fields questions in one chapter, too. Sidebars invite readers to an interactive Web site (not functional as PW goes to press), and other elements of note include charts, computer-chat dialogue and entries written by real-life teens. Ages 12-16. (Feb.)