PIER PRESSURE

This tepid tale launches Luna Bay: A Roxy Girl Series, published in conjunction with Roxy, a fashion brand of Quiksilver, producer of surfing equipment and clothing. Set in the surfer-girl subculture, the series focuses on five California teens who are diehard surfers and best friends. Luna, whose parents run the surf camp at which she and her pals work as assistant counselors, takes center stage in this installment. Luna's summer agenda includes practicing for a big surfing competition that her mother won years before (she then went on to become a three-time women's world surfing champion). Luna's training efforts are sidetracked by her budding relationship with David, a good-looking yet seemingly moody camper with "full, almost pouting lips" and "brooding dark eyes that make Luna's throat catch." And she is at times overwhelmed by her fear that she'll fall short of her goal to win the championship, thereby failing to live up to her mother's expectations. Girls who surf or aspire to may want to ride this out. Others are likely to find the occasional surfing jargon hokey ("She makes the drop—barely—and pulls off a quick bottom turn before the lip slams her and she disappears into the soup") and the plot melodramatic and predictable. Due the same month is the next installment, Wave Good-bye. Ages 9-up. (June)