Alternating voices of Cal and Elliot tell a witty, offbeat story of unexpected but auspicious first love. Featuring unforgettable characters, colorful backdrops, and even a few recipes, the tale is as funny as it is romantic. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Together, Barkley (Money, Love, for adults) and Hepler compose a tender, quirky romance starring two teens from unconventional backgrounds. Eliot is living at a combination fat farm/Christian campsite run by his born-again, entrepreneur father ("Get Thin with Christ!" is the camp's theme) when Calliope ("Cal") arrives in town with her jewelry-peddling mother to work at a nearby Medieval "faire." When the two teens cross paths in a bookstore, they are instantly attracted to each other (Cal feels like "a hive of bees has just erupted in my head" when she first meets Eliot, while Eliot is left breathless by Cal's beauty). But it seems inevitable that their romance which blossoms rather abruptly will be short-lived or ill-fated. Eliot's father disapproves of the relationship and Cal's mother is getting the itch to move on to another town. However, due to the quiet intervention by two caring adults, Eliot's discontent mother and a kindly restaurant owner who has befriended Cal, Eliot and Cal might just find a way to be together. If the authors' depiction of teen infatuation is somewhat idealized here, the intensity of their emotions comes across as authentic. Readers who wish that Romeo and Juliet had a happier ending will find much gratification in this more uplifting story. Ages 12-up. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 7 Up Calliope once lived happily with her artist parents. Then her mother decided to find herself, and now she and her daughter pack up and go at a moment notice, following Renaissance Faires around the country. Eliot once lived with his normal family on the Carolina coast where they were all very happy. Then his father found God and dragged them to the woods to start a Fat Camp based on the motto, What Would Jesus Eat? In alternating chapters, readers follow Cal and Eliot as they struggle with growing up, finding themselves, and finding one another. While each narrator has a clear and unique voice, the two work together in perfect harmony. Supporting characters all adults are well developed and distinctive. Reluctant teen readers may be drawn to this title by the bubble-gum-cutesy cover, but they will be hooked by the strong, quirky story of love and family. Morgan Johnson-Doyle, Sierra High School, Colorado Springs, CO Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr. 7-10. My mother is a wench. It says so right on her W-2. Fifteen-year-old Calliope (Cal) is tired of sleeping in tents and following her free-spirited mother, who works at Renaissance fairs, selling handmade jewelry and serving drinks. She yearns for four walls, her father back in Texas, and a deeper sense of place, connection, and love. Then, while spending the summer in Asheville, North Carolina, Cal meets Elliot, also 15, whose father runs a Christian camp for overweight kids. Like David Levithan and Rachel Cohn's Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2006), this coauthored love story unfolds in alternating chapters narrated in Cal and Elliot's hilarious, heart-tugging voices. Although the adult characters veer toward caricature, and the story's closing events feel a bit hasty and undeveloped, the authors raise a potentially routine summer romance into a refreshing, poetic, memorable story filled with the precise small details that nudge people toward love--from the sound of a necklace to the taste of homemade barbeque sauce. GillianEngberg. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.