Nina Shapes Up

Making Out #10

by Katherine Applegate

Desperate to keep Ben's love, Nina decides to transform herself and shape up when she discovers that Ben confronts an operation that could help him regain his eyesight. Original.

Genres: Young Adult, Romance, Fiction, Childrens, Teen, German Literature, Contemporary

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 8, 1996

About the author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Katherine Applegate has written many books for young readers, including THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, winner of the 2013 Newbery Medal.

Katherine’s picture books include THE BUFFALO STORM, illustrated by Jan Ormerod (Clarion Books); THE REMARKABLE TRUE STORY OF IVAN, THE SHOPPING MALL GORILLA, illustrated by G. Brian Karas (Clarion Books); SOMETIMES YOU FLY, illustrated by Jennifer Black Reinhardt (Clarion Books); and ODDER: AN OTTER’S STORY, illustrated by Charles Santoso (Feiwel & Friends).

She’s written or co-written three early chapter series for young readers: ROSCOE RILEY RULES, a seven-book series illustrated by Brian Biggs (HarperCollins); DOGGO AND PUPPER, a three-book series illustrated by Charlie Alder (Feiwel & Friends). With Gennifer Choldenko, she co-authored DOGTOWN and MOUSE AND HIS DOG, illustrated by Wallace West (Feiwel & Friends).

Books for middle-grade readers include HOME OF THE BRAVE (Feiwel & Friends); THE ONE AND ONLY series, illustrated by Patricia Castelao, including THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, THE ONE AND ONLY BOB, THE ONE AND ONLY RUBY, and THE ONE AND ONLY FAMILY (HarperCollins); the ENDLING trilogy (HarperCollins); CRENSHAW (Feiwel & Friends); WISHTREE (Feiwel & Friends); WILLODEEN (Feiwel & Friends); ODDER (Feiwel & Friends); and the forthcoming POCKET BEAR (Feiwel & Friends).

With her husband, Michael Grant, Katherine co-wrote ANIMORPHS, a long-running series that has sold over 35 million books worldwide. They also wrote two other series, REMNANTS and EVERWORLD, and a young adult novel, EVE AND ADAM (Feiwel & Friends.)

Katherine’s work has been translated into dozens of languages, and her books have won accolades including the Christopher Medal, the Golden Kite Award, the Bank Street Josette Frank Award, the California Book Award Gold Medal, the Crystal Kite Award, the Green Earth Book Honor Award, the Charlotte Zolotow Honor Award, and the E.B. White Read Aloud Award. Many of her works have appeared on state master lists, Best of the Year lists, and Publishers Weekly, USA Today, and New York Times bestseller lists.

Katherine lives in Nevada with her husband and assorted pets. She is represented by Elena Giovinazzo at Heirloom Literary and Mary Pender at WME.

Reviews

[Nicky (burialshroud) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nina Shapes Up was a bit disappointing after Zoey Plays Games, which was amazing for me, sort of the quintessential Making Out novel. I enjoyed this one, but it’s not one of my favourites, despite how well-thumbed and fall-aparty my copy is. There’s a good chance I read it a lot back in the day because it’s one of the Nina books and she was my favourite. Weird, because I knew then as well as I know now that the name in the title does not necessarily indicate the prevalence of the owner of the name in the events of the book. It must be a loyalty thing, I wanted to be seen with the Nina books, repping my girl Ninny.

Jake and Lara have this co-dependent, let’s-sex-so-we-don’t-drink relationship. No real developments there. Christopher reveals his army plan and proposes to Aisha. I want so much for her to say no because despite my temporary beating-induced goodwill towards Christopher, I feel in my heart that he is a jackass.

Zoey spends the book moping (about Aaron) and bitching (about Lara), but that’s par for the course with her nowadays. I’m starting to understand why my younger self thought she was the drip to end all drips. Lucas is dying to know what’s up with her and spends the book trying to find out.

Claire grows ever more deranged, stalking Aaron and finding out that he’s not the chivalrous virgin he paints himself to be. Claire takes this to mean that he is boy-Claire and it’s their destiny to get together…even though it seems more likely that it’s their destiny to become step-siblings.

Benjamin is gearing up for a visit to Boston to see if he’s a candidate for the sight-restoring surgery. He doesn’t tell anyone where he’s going or why but they all find out anyway. Nina goes with him and after some miscommunication (these two!) they deflower each other at the Malibu Hotel. Awwwww! It’s a nice thing. Two people in a great relationship who really love each other, taking the natural next step makes a change from sex-fiend Lucas, Zoey’s pathological fear of pregnancy and whatever’s going on with Aisha that means she won’t sleep with Christopher (I like to think it’s because she feels in her heart that he’s a jackass).

Fave moments:
-Benjamin’s doctor catches Nina loitering around a condom machine and gives Nina and Benjamin a safe sex talk. Awks!

Jake’s Sister Holly:
-No sign!

[Katelynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

this series is my secret weapon as we go into the final weeks of the reading challenge, because i devour these books like candy. the last books of animorphs were ghostwritten, and so are all the books in MO after book 8, and i remember thinking that the ghostwriters hated rachel because sometimes they really made her hideous and unlikable and out of character. i think the same thing's happening here with zoey. she's actually kind of vile, and i don't know if that's something that katherine applegate had in mind for her brave, feminist, ferocious little heroine. if they continue re-releasing the books, i'd be interested in seeing if zoey changes at all.

ANYWAY besides zoey, this is a pretty entertaining book, especially in regards to nina and benjamin, who are the cutest and sweetest ever. and i always love claire when she's in scorned lonely sleuth mode. i love the way she digs deeper and deeper into things that she know are going to break her heart, but she seems to convince herself that she's going to gain power by being able to one-up everyone that hurts her. but at the end of the day she's just hurt and lonely and i'm cringing because i know what's around the corner for her.

aisha and christopher i couldn't care less about. which is really unfortunate, because, like zoey, aisha starts off as such a ballsy, strong female character, and then she gets so obsessed with her boyfriend and adsfjadslfasdfjasdf who cares

and jake is still choo choo chooing full steam ahead on the trainwreck express. and i am still unabashedly in love with him.

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

* So Zoey kissed Aaron, and now can't stop kissing Aaron, which is not good when she already has a boyfriend.
* Everyone knows something is going on with Zoey because she's behaving strangely. Claire eventually tells Lucas what is going on, and he catches the pair of them making out in her room 🤦 Poor Lucas after all the shit she gave him over Claire!
* Nina and Benjamin go to Boston without telling his parents, the doctor there says that he's a good candidate for the eye surgery. Nina and Benjamin then go have sex in the Malibu motel.
* Jake and Lara get closer, and end up getting drunk together, even though Jake swore off alcohol.
* Christopher decides to join the army and asks Aisha to marry him.
* Claire is still pissed off that Aaron chose Zoey over her, and obviously plots to tear them apart and keep Aaron for herself.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember this one so well from when I was younger it must have been one of my favourites. So much drama!

[belindag26637 · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75
This one was WILD

[Jeannine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aaargh Nina and Ben <3

[Elaine Mullane || Elaine and the Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Feeling nostalgic for the books of my youth, I revisited Katherine Applegate and her Islanders omnibus editions (first released as the Making Out series way back in 1993. Yes, I am that old...).

While I found them to be overly-dramatic and a little bit cheesy on second reading, I think they would be loved by teenagers today. YA has taken a much-welcome step in the sphere of fantasy, science fiction and Dystopia, largely, in recent years so for teenagers looking for the traditional romance novels filled with teen-angst and buried secrets, these are a good series to turn to. A little bit Dawson's Creek in it's setting and it's drama, The Islanders is the perfect teen soap opera.

[C. B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember being obsessed with this series when I was 14! I made my mom buy me all 29 books (in Germany a 29th book was published, there is no English translation) after borrowing the first one from my then-best friend.
Looking back, the plots got wilder and wilder with time: A lost half-sister, Claire's stalker, Ben miraculously being able to see again etc. I don't think I would enjoy it as much now as I did ten years ago, but it will only have a special place in my heart.

[Isa · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0

[Nadine · Rating 4 out of 5]

diese Buchreihe hat mich während meiner Teeniezeit begleitet. ich habe sie so geliebt...