24 Girls in 7 Days ***

Bradley, Alex. 24 Girls in 7 Days. New York: Alloy, 2005.

Despite the questionable title, I bought this book. Now that I have read it, I am left scratching my head. Who is this book meant for? Let me explain the plot so you can understand what I mean.

First, the main character's name is Jack Grammar. Someone with a last name like that just has to be a total dork. The book opens up with Jack being egged on to ask out a girl to the prom-- the girl he has liked forever. She turns him down. His best friends Percy and Natalie cook up a scheme where they put a personal ad on the online school newspaper for him, looking for a prom date, without his knowledge. This leave Jack with 24 dates in 7 days, the 7 days leading up to prom. He hates the idea once he finds out about it, and he gets really angry. Adding to the confusion are the email from FancyPants, who seems to be his real soul-mate, but she isn't interested in being his prom date or even meeting with him. Of course, he has some real bad dates and stuff, and in the end he has to pick a date.

So this leaves me wondering--who wants to read this book? It is about a guy-- but what guy wants to read about a total tool who can't get a prom date? While it is pretty funny, yes, there aren't that many guys that want to read about the subject matter. So, this leaves me with the girls. I know girls will read books with main characters that are guys, so this book does have an audience. I would recommend it to anyone that enjoys funny books, or books about proms.