These Are the Rules

Readers catch a glimpse of the world according to teenager Colm in this wry account of his trials during a summer at White Sand Lake. Colm's list of 12 rules for living (one of which appears at the end of each chapter) are taken directly from his personal experiences. Such pearls of wisdom as ""Keep your eyes on the stars, but don't be surprised if you step on a banana peel"" and ""It's hard to steer when you don't know where you're going"" correlate with his (mostly unsuccessful) attempts to learn how to drive a car from his hard-nosed ""ex"" father, recently divorced from Colm's mother; to win the heart of flirtatious Carmella, ""who somehow got five years older"" since last summer; and to swim the width of the lake while girl-next-door Marlene cheers him on. Colm's sometimes cynical, often funny analyses of his failures prove to be more astute than his understanding of his own relationships, especially with females. In a well-worn plot line, he is too blinded by love to recognize Carmella's self-centeredness and he remains oblivious to Marlene's numerous attributes until she appears at precisely the moment he needs her most. First-time novelist Many does a lot more telling than showing and the plot turns on some overly dramatic situations, but his narrator's sharp wit will probably keep the reader tuned into his roller-coaster ride toward adulthood. Ages 12-up. (May)