Kieran Scott
Putnam Juvenile (2008)
ISBN 9780399247606
Reviewed by Spencer Zaborowski (age 13) for Reader Views (5/08)
“Geek Magnet” by Kieran Scott is a very funny book about a girl named KJ Miller, geeks named Fred Frontz, Glenn Marlowe, and Andy Terrero, a high-school Hottie, named Cameron Richardson, and the most popular Tama Gold! In this book KJ is the geek pied piper of Washington High. She is the one that the geeks go to for help. That is, until Tama Gold starts to befriend KJ, and Tama helps KJ ditch the “nice” girl act and starts to get cruel! She pulls some mean stunts that seemed funny at first, but then I felt bad because I wouldn’t have wanted to be in her path!
KJ also finds out that Tama is using her for the play ‘Grease.’ Since KJ was in charge of the school play, Tama just wanted to get the lead part and have her own dressing table. Of course, that causes some drama. To add another twist to this story, KJ has an alcoholic dad that she and her brother Christopher are mostly afraid of, until he is in a car accident and gets help.
All KJ wants is for Cameron Richardson to notice her, and when he does, KJ thinks it is great. She does some funny things to get his attention, and it seems to have worked. Things did not go so well after a couple of dates, though, when KJ finds out the real reason that Cameron wanted to go out with her.
Another character in this book is Robbie Delano, who at first KJ thinks likes her but later finds out that Robbie likes Tama. When Robbie first goes out with Tama, he finds out that Tama only dated him to make her ex-boyfriend, Leo, jealous. This upsets him very much. At the end, KJ and Robbie begin going out together, and they both were happy. My favorite part was when KJ was teaching Robbie to dance; that was a very sweet time, with music playing in the background and I think that is when they first started liking each other.
“Geek Magnet” by Kieran Scott is definitely an amusing book and one that kids can relate to because it talks about the drama in high school and at a lot of homes. It is an easy-to-read book with good grammar and modern language. The book is written like a play, which is unusual for a book like this. That added interest and made it fun to read. It also made me think about how we treat our friends sometimes, and how mean teenagers can be to each other. It made the book interesting, but some of the ways the kids treated each other hurt feelings and friendships wasn’t good. I really enjoyed “Geek Magnet” and I think that most teens and some preteens will like it also!
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