3. Planet Janet

Planet Janet (Dyan Sheldon, 2002)

This one was a gift from my friend Pete a couple years back. I read the other YA title he gave me at the same time, but somehow never got around to Planet Janet until now. It's tempting to call this a teenaged Bridget Jones' Diary, except that BJ was not much more mature than this heroine. Janet is a self-absorbed sixteen-year-old girl attempting to enter her "Dark Phase," wherein she wears black clothing and tries unsuccessfully to think deep thoughts. She's rather irritatingly self-absorbed, not realizing at all what's going on in her own family. I kept thinking that she was written as a thirteen-year-old because she seemed far too naive and clueless to be in high school. Then I remembered that thirteen is probably the age of the target audience and tweens and teens like to read about kids a few years older than themselves. In any case, the diary conceit works pretty well and Janet's voice rings true.