Summary: All Elise wants is to have her first kiss before she turns sixteen. Is that so bad? But when a friend's poor advice and the powers of electronic technology combine, Elise heads down a dangerous road. She is accused of "sexting" and gets kicked out of school. But is she really the one to blame?
This powerful and realistic story from beloved author Melody Carlson shows teen girls the impact of their choices when it comes to respecting themselves and their integrity. Honest and relevant, Never Been Kissed will make girls laugh, cry . . . and think.
Author: Melody Carlson is the award-winning author of over two hundred books, several of them Christmas novellas from Revell, including her much-loved and bestselling book, The Christmas Bus. She also writes many teen books, including Just Another Girl, Anything but Normal, the Diary of a Teenage Girl series, the TrueColors series, and the Carter House Girls series. Melody was nominated for a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award in the inspirational market for her books, including the Notes from a Spinning Planet series and Finding Alice, which is in production as a Lifetime Television movie. She and her husband serve on the Young Life adult committee in central Oregon. Visit Melody's website at www.melodycarlson.com.
My Thoughts: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. Written for late middle school to high school girls, it was easy to read and the story was engaging from the beginning. Carlson does a great job of getting inside the immature head of a young naive girl without dumbing her down. The story shows how easy it is for someone to be duped online and get in over her head before she even realizes it. This is a great book to make teens aware of a sticky subject without getting into details that would make parents too uncomfortable when handing the book to their daughters.
The book is not anti-dating or anti-first kiss, but is anti-dating or first kiss for it's own sake. As my first kiss was the result of a bet at camp (I was thirteen. The first one to get a guy to full-fledged kiss her won a can of Coke. I won. And lost. Trivializing that milestone is not a great way to go.), I appreciated this more than the average adult reader may. In my time, we didn't have the danger of emailing or texting inappropriate photos. This is a real issue for today and we're lying to ourselves if we think Christian teens are immune. If we can teach the seriousness of this through story, it should stick better than being preached at and Carlson does a good job of weaving in the main characters faith in God without coming across preachy. This is a story with a message but she manages to keep the story to the forefront and the message one the reader learns along with the main character. It's a hard balance and I believe she handled it well.
Never Been Kissed is available directly from Revell Books, or from your favorite online or local bookstore.
*Disclosure: I received this book at no cost in exchange for an honest review.*
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