Review Detail

Catherine Clark's Truth or Dairy is a playful romp in the confused mind of a teenage girl, Courtney Von Dragen Smith. While Courtney takes herself very seriously, you can tell that the author finds it nearly irresistable to poke a little fun at her.

This is yet another book in diary form and it does an excellent job of accurately portraying the voice of a teenager. I actually pulled out some of my old high school diaries from their safe hiding place and compared them. Ms. Clark has really captured what it means to be a teenage girl.

Courtney starts off with a diatribe against boys (and her ex-boyfriend in particular). Dave chose to break up with her right before going off to college and Courtney decides to swear off boys for the next year. Well, we know that's a promise made to be broken.

How it gets broken, and why, is the main topic of the diary. There's also some other interesting sub-plots thrown in about Courtney's friends, her dog, her siblings and her mother's losing battle with the phone company. One thing I wish is that we could get to know Courtney's friends and family even more. Of course, that's hard to do in a diary format.

We do get to know Courtney quite well and learn to like her. Sometimes you want to give her a prod in the right direction or smack your forehead when she does something particularly silly, but you have confidence that she'll come around in the end.

Given the tone of this book, I recommend it for kids 12 and up (or as young as 10). However, I think 18 is the outer limit for the appeal of this book. It's probably won't appeal to teens out of high school.