Rennison – Angus, Thongs & Full-frontal Snogging

Rennison, Louise. Angus, Thongs & Full-frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicholson. New York: HarperTeen, 2000. 256 pp.

14-year old Georgia is trying to balance high school, her bed-wetting little sister, a half-wild pet cat Angus, & her crush on Robbie the Sex God. Unfortunately she’s out-classed by Robbie’s girlfriend – who wears a <gasp!> thong. She worries she’s not pretty enough, takes kissing lessons & tries to shrink the size of her nose. Rennison writes in ‘British,’ but fortunately, she includes a translation dictionary for us Americans. Angus, Thongs & Full-Frontal Snogging is a laugh-out-loud treasure of teen chick lit.

My previous co-worker/ mentor children’s librarian loves Rennison & has been recommending I read her as my sampling of teen chick lit for years, so I was happy to get the chance in this class. Angus, Thongs & Full-Frontal Snogging was a very fun read & I’m glad I finally gave it shot. It’s a regular on banned book lists (“The Texas ACLU chapter recorded two challenges to… “Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging” (a slang term for kissing), alleging inappropriate language and sexual content”[1]), so I expected it to be rather scandalous. In fact, I was surprised at how tame it was. The title led me to expect all sort of sordid teenagery, but instead of being shocked by the content, I was merely shocked that anyone could have objected to it. It was fun, delightful & I felt, thoroughly age-appropriate. Georgia may be a bit precocious, but is entirely believable as a 14 year old girl.

Booklist gave it a Starred Review, saying; “This “fabbity, fab, fab” novel will leave readers cheering, “Long live the teen!” and anxiously awaiting the promised sequel.”[2] LibraryThing carries a lot of favorable reviews, calling Angus, Thongs…, “LOL! One of my favorite all time books,”[3] “one of my favorite books out of my entire library! This is a REALLY good book. I recommend it to ANYONE,”[4] & “my ultimate guilty pleasure in middle school! I remember reading it between the aisles in my local library, too fearful of my mother’s wrath to even take it home.”[5] However, a few readers found it, “very poorly written… drags on in some parts and makes it very dull to read,”[6] and have suggested that it has a “lackluster plot.”[7] Despite a couple of poor reviews, however, the overwhelming popularity of the Georgia Nicholson series really shines through.

Rennison is one of the top names in teen girls literature; the Georgia Nicholson series is a must-have for any public or high school library collection. Angus, Thongs & Full-frontal Snogging would a be a great booktalk title for any group or teenage girls & it should have a place of honor on any YA Chick Lit list.

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[1] Schontzler, Gail, “Bozeman dad challenges ‘Sex God’ book over title,” http://www.kidspeakonline.org/sexgod.htm (accessed 5 May 2010).

[2] “Angus, Thongs, & Full-frontal Snogging,” Booklist Reviews. 2000, July #1. as found in Baker & Taylor’s Title Source 3. http://ts3g.informata.com/TS3/record.jsp?rn=11&ps=12&fr=0&anc=11&bs=1&fb=0&n=E%3A%5Cwebapp%5Cts3%5Cmain%5Cusers%5Cls000650.rec&FirstRec=Y (accessed 9 May 2010).

[3] kpickett, “Angus, Thongs & Full-Frontal Snogging,” LibraryThing, 29 April 2008. http://www.librarything.com/work/12333 (accessed 9 May 2010).

[4] hayleyd, ibid, February 2008.

[5] krysbrenzinski, ibid, 27 October 2009.

[6] okmliteracy, ibid, 2 February 2009.

[7] KhrystiBooks, ibid, 6 December 2007.

A little bonus education

Meredith Farkas (Information Wants to be Free) is teaching an on-line class for the School of Library and Information Science on Web 2.0. What’s more, she’s posting class content through Drupal & making it available to all & sundry. I would strongly recommend that anyone in the library world take a look – & follow along if you have time!