Celine

The typical girl-meets-boy story gets turned inside out in this witty, offbeat novel. Yes, the title character ends up with Jake, the boy next door, only he's still in grade school and wears Superman underwear. Celine, a budding artist, wants to graduate from high school a year early and live with her best friend in Italy. All she has to do first is, according to her absent father, ``show a little maturity,'' which Celine interprets as ``pass all your courses, avoid detection in all crimes and misdemeanors, don't get pregnant.'' The last item is the easiest; sex is a complete mystery. But although Celine is smart enough--maybe too smart--she's going to fail English unless she squeezes out an essay on Holden Caulfield, and she's skipped her mandatory swimming class all term. Celine is confident that she can finagle her way around the authorities at school, but she can't manage her emotions so easily. She finally goes to pieces during a therapy session that she wanders into by mistake, but which--always Celine--she turns to her advantage. Adrift in a confusing world, Cole's ( The Goats ) irrepressible heroine somehow manages to get the best of almost every situation by talking rings around her bemused adversaries. Her wry comments on everything from modern art to divorce are as perspicacious as they are delightful. Ages 12-up. (Oct. )