Do You Call That A D

Readers are sure to enjoy narrator Jenny's wisecracks while sympathizing with the messes she gets herself into. Jenny, a ninth-grade New Yorker, is deliriously happy when she learns that, as a publicity campaign, a student from her school is to have a ""dream date'' with Matt Gates, lead singer of Country of the Blind. But when it's announced that the lucky girl will be the author of the best essay about the band, Jenny knows she hasn't a chanceshe's flunking English. Older sister Carolyn, who already makes Jenny's life miserable, makes her the subject of a psychology paper on subnormal adolescents. Jenny reads it; to get back at Carolyn, Jenny steals her sister's paper on the Beatles and uses it as her essay in the contest. She wins the date, and it's everything she wished for, but the truth of her deception eventually gets out. Convinced that she'll never have another friend again, she's surprised when her childhood pal Albert invites her home for dinner. And Jenny learns that a real date can be much more satisfying than a dream one. Ages 12-up. (February)