Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
Summary: Told in a diary entry format that breaks down the month, day, location, the exact time, and sometimes even the weather, Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging contains the uncensored thoughts of one Georgia Nicholson. Angus is her cat that terrorizes her family and the neighbors, thongs are what the girlfriend (and possibly fiancé) of her sworn enemy wears, and full-frontal snogging is what she wants to do with said “enemy” who she also describes as a “sex-god.” Georgia is, in a word, complicated. And in another, British. Okay, she’s several words, and three of them aren’t boring, simple, and unfunny.
Impression: Every write-up in existence for this book describes it as teenage sister to Bridget Jones’s Diary, but I think that’s selling it a bit short, but possibly right. I don’t know. I’m probably the last female on earth who hasn’t read Bridget Jones’s Diary. I just hate those sort of comparisons. I actually grabbed this book because I like list-y titles (The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, anyone? Interestingly enough both Rennison’s and Carolyn Mackler’s books with heartbreakingly and hilariously honest teenage girls have been challenged by people who probably think “big round things” are breasts and “full-frontal,” something you do in your nuddy-pants¹). I also like fictional books that have glossaries in the POV of the main character (doubly if there are footnotes! This book doesn’t have that, but I’m just putting that out there. Footnotes as a storytelling/characterization technique=awesome.). Anyway, I had fun reading the first installment of what I didn’t realize was an entire series. Georgia’s confessions are refreshing and fun and full of all that deliciously teenage humor and imagination/exaggeration that I remember so well.
Reviews:
“British writer Rennison’s subject matter may be the stuff of Bridget Jones’s Diary, but the wit and bite of her delivery shares more in common with Monty Python. In a spectacular YA debut (Rennison is a comedy writer and columnist), the author creates a winning protagonist in the persona of 14-year-old Georgia Nicolson, whose wry observations and self-deprecating humor covers everything from prudish parents and bed-wetting three-year-old siblings to errant cat behavior and kissing (aka snogging) lessons. Teens will discover that nothing is sacred here (e.g., ‘Talking of breasts, I’m worried that I may end up like the rest of the women in my family, with just the one bust, like a sort of shelf affair’). Rennison exquisitely captures the fine art of the adolescent ability to turn chaos into stand-up comedy. For instance, when Georgia’s father finds a new job in New Zealand, the teen says she’s already formed her opinion of the country based on the TV show Neighbours; when her mother says, ‘Well, that’s set in Australia,’ Georgia thinks, ‘What is this, a family crisis or a geography test?’ Written as diary entries, the novel flouts the conceit, as when Georgia reports on a tennis match that she’s playing concurrently (“I fall to my knees like McEnroe and the crowd is going mad”). The author bio indicates that Rennison is working on two more Georgia books; readers can only hope this heroine will keep them laughing all the way through high school. Ages 12-up.” – Publishers Weekly
“Gr. 6-9. American readers wondering what on earth ‘full-frontal snogging’ is will find the answer in the helpful (and hilarious) glossary appended to this antic diary of a year in the life of an English girl named Georgia Nicolson. Snogging is, simply, ‘kissing with all the trimmings,’ and it’s much on 14-year-old Georgia’s mind these days. For even though she’s still reeling from her devastatingly bad decision to go to a party dressed as a stuffed olive, she has fallen in love with an older man (he’s 17), a Sex God named Robbie. The trouble is, S. G. is dating a girl named Lindsay who–brace yourself–wears a thong. Honestly, how wet (idiotic) can you get! In the meantime, life on the homefront is spinning out of control. Dad has gone to New Zealand in search of a better job, and pet cat Angus, who can usually be spotted stalking the neighbor’s poodle, has gone missing. Although performer and comedy writer Rennison clearly owes a large debt to Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary (1998), her Georgia is a wonderful character whose misadventures are not only hysterically funny but universally recognizable. This ‘fabbity, fab, fab’ novel will leave readers cheering, ‘Long live the teen!’ and anxiously awaiting the promised sequel.” – Booklist
Uses: If you’re allowed to celebrate (or is it anti-celebrate?) banned book week, feature this book. If not, have a Brit book week and make everyone use British slang because life’s more enjoyable when you’re less shirty².
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