Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love

by Maryrose Wood

Meet Felicia, 14-year-old student at the Manhattan Free Children’s School (also known as the Pound). In Felicia's world, she and her best friends, Jess and Kat, like to refer to themselves as the Sex Kittens, and the boys they know as the Horn Dawgs.
Felicia is getting tired of waiting for a Horn Dawg to notice her uniqueness, however. So she devises a project she and the object of her affection, Matthew the Science Brain, can work on together. Felicia is determined to discover the Secret of Love with Matthew while winning both Matthew’s heart and the science fair. But love has other plans.
(Doesn’t it always?)

Genres: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Romance

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 24, 2006

About the author

Sending big hugs and loveawoo to all.

I'm so pleased to introduce you to my new book: Alice's Farm, A Rabbit’s Tale. In stores on September 1st; available for preorder now.

Alice is an eastern cottontail. Genus sylvagia, species floridanus. About three pounds full grown, if she makes it that far.

Life at the bottom of the food chain is no picnic! But that doesn’t worry Alice much. She's too busy doing all she can to save her beautiful farmland home—not just for herself, but for all the creatures of the valley between the hills.

Yup, all of ’em! Even that new family of farmers who just moved into the big red
house across the meadow. They don’t know much about farming, being from
the city. They mean well. But they’re easy pickins for the local apex predator (he's a real estate developer, in case you couldn't tell).

But Alice has a plan to help.

Rabbits helping farmers? That’s awfully unusual, isn’t it? Well, you're right
about that, young’un!

Let’s put it this way: Alice is no ordinary rabbit.

With loveawoo,
Maryrose

p.s. — If you could use a little extra pluck and optimism right now, please help yourself to THE SWANBURNE ACADEMY GUIDE TO SHELTERING IN PLACE.

You can download it right here:

www.swanburneacademy.com/freeguide

Reviews

[Carey]

I only read this book because common sense media put it on a list of "best teen romance novels," gave it 4 stars, and said the terrible title masked a terrific book. This turned out not to be true. The terrible title revealed a terrible book. It was like reading one long unedited e-mail written by a teenager. It's one thing to accurately and amusingly capture teenagers in writing (*cough - Will Grayson, Will Grayson*), it's something entirely different to read a teenager's romance novel, which is what this was like for me. Painful, but at least mercifully quick to read.

[Lyn]

The Manhattan Free Children's school is a small private school housed in a crumbly old brown-stone near Gramercy Park. The school appears to be based on A.S. Neil's Summerhill in Great Britain where the children have the personal freedom to discover who they are and where their interests lie.

Fourteen-year-old Felicia's interests lie in future scientist Matthew Dwyer, who spends all his time in the lab with his fat, happy, psychic rabbits.

How do you win the heart of a scientist? Engage him in an important research project. Felicia suggests the Search for X, which is the thing that makes the one you love, love you back. While Matthew finds the project interesting and is betting that it'll win the top science fair award, Felicia is having a hard time finding X.

While the title is a bit raunchy, this book is squeaky clean and the plot is hilariously original. The characters are a credit to the Pound, which is what Felicia and her friends call their school since they refer to themselves as Kittens and their guy friends as Dawgs. Only at the Pound could you learn about love and put together a science project at the same time.

[Jolene Tay]

This middle school love story explains how a teenage girl feels when she has a crush. Felicia tries very hard to determine if Matthew likes her. She is in love with him and will do anything to spend time with him. But later finds out that he loves her best friend, but ends up dating his best friend. This book made me laugh and smile. The title makes the book seem like what the book is not. I totally recommend this book to every teen.

[Theresa Poore]

I picked this book up based on just the name. The title is very misleading. Makes me love this book even more. Marriage Wood has great insight into the minds inner workings. I just had to read from start to finish. This is most definitely a must read book. It's filled with suspense, intrigue, romance and comedy.

[Jennifer Wardrip]

Reviewed by Sally Kruger, aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

SEX KITTENS AND HORN DAWGS FALL IN LOVE is a gossipy love story sure to please the tween and teen chick-lit crowd. Maryrose Wood takes the reader into the world of the New York City teen with her story about a group of students who attend the Manhattan Free Children's School.

Felicia narrates the story about her crush on a boy named Matthew, and her attempt to lure him in her direction. With the school's science fair as a backdrop, the two agree to join forces to discover the mysterious X-factor in what makes love work. Felicia actually confesses her crush to Matthew, hoping his scientific curiosity will force him to help her prove their relationship is meant to be. Can they use experiments and observation to scientifically prove what makes love happen?

Other parallel plots in the book help entertain the reader. There is Felicia's liberal-minded, bookstore-owning mother who is divorced from Felicia's now remarried father. Then there's Kat, a blossoming violinist who has a Russian accompanist who seems to forget her tender young age and develops a disturbing crush on her. If that's not enough, there's Randall, a closet martial arts student, who tries to fight his romantic feelings for Felicia. All these intertwined stories are told in Felicia's unique conversational style.

Although the title might disturb some adults, Wood's novel, written about young love, is humorous and harmless fun for teen readers.

[Beckie]

it is very, very cute. it is about the X factor (love), teenage girls (sex kittens), teenage boys (dawgs), and the private high school they attend (the pound). the book focuses on a science fair project about the X factor...what it is, how it works, how someone knows if they have it, etc. the girls speak in exaggerations and exclamations, and i don't know if teens nowadays actually speak this way because i am never around any, but i don't doubt it, because like when i was like in high school like i totally was all like 'fast times at ridgemont high' dude! like fer sure! like totally gnarly!

this totally cutesy book, full of love, dreams, hopes, teen angst, music, a few first kisses, was banned by some school in florida because they did not like the title...no one bothered to read the book to see why it was named this...they just judged it by its cover! now, i am all for people making sure that kids aren't reading materials that are not age-appropriate, but this book is totally harmless! it only has one swear word in it! there is no sex...and not even any implied sex. i am not going to tell you why they are called sex kittens...you will have to read the book. i am glad this book caught my eye, and that i read it not knowing it was a banned book, because i appreciate it even more.
you can check out banned book week at http://www.ala.org/bbooks

[Brett]

Not the best teen girl romance I've ever read, but not the worst, either. The thing that makes this one a little different from the crowd is how protagonist Felicia handles her obsessive crush on Matthew: knowing he's very interested in science, she goes & tells him about it, then proposes that together the two of them do a project for the science fair looking at the "X" behind love - what causes people to feel it for one person but not another, & can you do something to get a person who doesn't feel it for you to change? This way, she'll learn what she's missing, get it, & then change Matthew's mind - plus, they'll get to spend a lot of time together in the meantime. Of course, there's a lot of back-and-forthing between their group of friends at the experimental free school they attend in Manhattan before everything wraps up, & teenage girls will enjoy that, along with the frothy writing style.

[Quinlan]

Funny and cute, but in a sense I was a little scared out of my mind reading this book. Just like the cover, I felt as if I was reading an eighth-grader's romance novel through a dounut-indunced LSD trip--and I don't even know what that even remotely feels like!

Though the characters are cutesy and the way they made serveral references to animals--kittens, dawgs, the Pound-- was interesting, but truely the sole reason of me reading this book was the bizarre title and a dare when I showed my friends I found this strange, short-of-terrifyingly-trippy-looking book.

I'd be scared to read anything like it again.

[Maria Olga Nina]

A fun and witty read..It had me wishing I was as ultra cool and fearless as Felicia when I was fourteen! Running around New York city (with super cute "dawgs") and scientifically discovering (and experiencing first-hand) the Secret of Love is so much fun..I couldn't put the book down!

And credits to the author..she's awesome! She's masterful in creating a beautiful New York city where teens hang out just about everywhere whilst looking for answers pertaining to the universal phenomenon called love.

[Kim Aippersbach]

I wouldn't have picked this book up based on the title, but after reading The Incorrigible Children I wanted more Maryrose Wood. I wasn't disappointed. This one is sweet and funny and pitch-perfect in tone. (Also entirely different from The Incorrigible Children: free-spirited fourteen-year-olds in modern-day New York.) Felicia's voice is ahmazing! And wouldn't you love to go to a school like the Pound? Wood says she "strives to live with the appropriate mix of coolness and whimsy," and this book succeeds on all counts.

[Janelle]

This book, I don't really know how I feel about it. It had a good plot yes, but I'm not entirely sure if I liked it all that much. I did like the writing style though; there were a few times I laughed out loud. My favourite line in the book: "Will someone give peace a frickin chance already?" Overall, this was an ok book. There was nothing that I really hated about it, yet there was nothing I absolutely loved about it.

[Andrea Guy]

I picked up this young adult book at Ollies. Parents should note that the title doesn't mean that the young set in the story are going to be getting it on or anything like that.

It was a funny, sweet story about crushes and friendship. Definitely a good read for the tween set and anyone else that chooses to pick up the book.

[Caprice]

I picked this book up by mistake and what a mistake it was. I decided to give it a chance even though the title threw me off and because there was no description of what the story was even about. I read three chapters and still didn't understand what was going on. This book is a perfect example of the gray area that exists between juvenile and young adult books.

[Kricket]

the title grossed me out, but this was on a list of best somethings from sometime at some point...so i tried. the main character and her cutesy lingo were super annoying. after about 20 pages i put it down and couldn't bear the idea of reading any further.

[CLM]

A fun NYC read which provides a contrast to the absurdities of the rich Upper East Side Gossip Girl teens. 3 3/4 stars.

[Jane]

After reading the Mysterious Howling i ran right out and got this one. No comparison. Don't do it.

[Meredith]

Cute, not as funny as Rennison, but I think tween girls would enjoy it.

[Sarah Malawani]

Best story for puppy love. I wished this had happened to me during highschool. :D