Summer, Sun and Stuff According to Alex

According to Alex #6

by Kathryn Lamb

"Long, long, loooooooong and BORING weekend... Mark should be back from Spain by now, but he hasn't contacted me. I am NOT going to contact him - he didn't even send me a postcard! I try not to worry. I trust Mark! Don't I?"

Alex and Mark are back together, but now Mark is suddenly being elusive, and Alex is beginning to worry. Then she finds out he is going to Italy with Fabulosa's family! Alex's friends come up with a plan to win Mark back. But as usual, things don't quite work out as expected. Her new goth look scares everyone, her sunburn peels, her sister, Daisy, has a row with her new husband and moves into Alex's room...

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction

172 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Kathryn Lamb lives “quietly” in Gillingham, Dorset, with her six children and five cats. She also has five grandchildren. She was born and brought up in the Middle East where her parents worked for the foreign office. Her father became British Ambassador to Kuwait where Kathryn took her A- levels. Then she won a scholarship to Oxford University where she studied English and drew cartoons for student newspapers.

While at Oxford, Kathryn sent some drawings to Private Eye and to her surprise they used one! She has drawn cartoons for the magazine ever since. Kathryn has had cartoons in the Radio Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Oldie, The Guardian and The Spectator. As her name is Lamb she’s done a lot of sheep cartoons (such as Baa from the Madding Crowd) and has had several exhibitions and two books of sheep cartoons published. Her cartoons are sold in the Cartoon Gallery, London.

Kathryn has written and illustrated numerous books including the Alex and Best Mates Forever series for teenagers.

Reviews

[Lunabee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leggo libri per ragazzi spesso, soprattutto per le mie ricerche. Questo è carino, ma forse un po' povero di contenuti e storia. Adatto a ragazzine abbastanza giovani.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in diary format, this is the story of Alex's summer. She thinks her boyfriend is losing interest in her and that he's more interested in her friend. She tries everything to get him back, apart from actually talking to him! Because of this the summer is full of misunderstandings and there were some quite funny consequences.
This is a cute story and there are some fun illustrations throughout the book. Although Alex is supposed to be 15/16 she seems quite immature, so I think the book is more suitable for younger readers than for readers of Alex's age.