Like Hillary Frank's Better Than Running at Night (2002), this Australian import is an unusually sharp-eyed, witty view of an older teen's anxious first year of independence. When his parents move to Geneva, Switzerland, Dan stays in Brisbane for his senior year of high school, living with his slightly older aunt, Jacq, a university student. Dan instantly falls for sexy Naomi, Jacq's housemate, and he tries to win her with the same zeal he applies to his rigorous academics, even as he struggles with a bewildering home so different from the well-parented, beige suburban castle where he has grown up. Dan's minute analysis of events and his own flaws may slow readers who demand swift plots, although the story wraps up with several surprises, including a revelation of homosexuality. Older teens will relish Dan's wry, self-deprecating honesty about attraction, sex (mostly overheard), beer, calculus, and his uproariously funny, earnest search for the kind of guy he wants to be. Named Australia's Children's Book Council Book of the Year.

Dan is spending his senior year living with his aunt, Jacq, in Brisbane. Jacq is just a few years older than Dan, and her sweet, sexy roommate Naomi has all the right qualities to engender in Dan a full-blown crush. Dan's ruefully observed narration of unrequited love will keep the attention of any boy once persuaded into its pages.

Dan's dry, wickedly funny first-person voice chronicles a month of his life as he moves in with his aunt in hometown Brisbane while his parents move to Geneva. Dan is 16, his aunt Jacq 22, and their third housemate—the winsome Naomi—a university student. Unlike his parents' reliably neat household, this place is casual: beer is offered freely, Naomi has audible sex with her boyfriend in the middle of the afternoon, and Dan's on his own for discipline. But Dan is no partier, just a wry, self-aware virgin pining for Naomi. He memorizes the 48 shades of brown that classify birds, but can't get them to come out of his mouth in suitable ways to attract her. A question about calculus (math) becomes an ongoing musing about Calculus (the Tintin professor) merely because Naomi misunderstands. Hip, sarcastic Jacq is kind underneath; Dan's self-deprecating but smart. Colorfully understated and satisfying—and hilarious. (Fiction. YA)

Gr 9 Up-An insightful, appealing, and very funny novel about a teenage boy whose world is turned upside down when his father takes a job in Geneva and he chooses to stay in Australia to finish school. Dan lives with his 22-year-old Aunt Jacq, who is in a band, and her roommate, Naomi, an attractive psychology major who makes bad choices when it comes to men. Inexperienced and unsophisticated, he quickly falls for Naomi and is devastated when his feelings are not returned. Worse still, he has to listen as she and her jerk of a boyfriend have sex in the room next door. Extremely bright and sensitive, Dan is still learning about women, relationships, and controlling his compulsive behavior. His excessive introspection sometimes slows the pace of the novel, but the character feels genuine. Dan's socially awkward, porn-obsessed friend, Chris Burns, adds comic relief. The party Jacq and Naomi throw toward the end of the story leads to a conclusion that is both hilarious and moving. Dan is a wonderful, complex character. He combines his intense curiosity about sex with a rare thoughtfulness as he tries to figure out who he is and who he wants to become. Teen boysand girlswill find much that they can relate to in this coming-of-age story. Miranda Doyle, San Francisco Public Library