Airhead by Meg Cabot May 1, 2008

Hmm, how to talk about this book without giving anything away and saying something besides, “It’s awesome. Read it!”? Let’s see…

Emerson Watts is smart. She’s a feminist. She loves playing the computer game Journeyquest. She is definitely not an airhead.

Emerson Watts is not an airhead.

Some people oppose megastores on principle. Emerson Watts has a better reason to oppose them.

Forget it, we’ll go with the publisher’s copy:

Emerson Watts didn’t even want to go to the new SoHo Stark Megastore grand opening. But someone needed to look out for her sister, Frida, whose crush, British heartthrob Gabriel Luna, would be singing and signing autographs there—along with the newly appointed Face of Stark, teen supermodel sensation Nikki Howard.

How was Em to know that disaster would strike, changing her—and life as she’d known it—forever? One bizarre accident later, and Em Watts, always the tomboy, never the party princess, is no longer herself. Literally.

Now getting her best friend, Christopher, to notice that she’s actually a girl is the least of Em’s problems.

But what Em’s pretty sure she’ll never be able to accept might just turn out to be the one thing that’s going to make her dream come true….

And it’s awesome! Read it!

Seriously, if you’re a Meg Cabot fan, you need to read this book. If Cabot’s previous books were too light for your tastes, give this one a try. If you’re a librarian, I hope you’ve already ordered it. Airhead combines the best of Cabot’s style with one of her most mature protagonists that I can recall reading (of her YA books, at least). Em is less flighty and impulsive, more of an intellectual, while remaining just as likable as Cabot’s previous protagonists. Her narration is not as voluble but is still conversational and recognizably Cabot (Cabotian?). Plus, the plot itself is entertaining. Combined with Em, it makes for a very pleasurable book to read.

The only bad thing? I have no idea how long we have to wait for the sequel.

Airhead will be published on May 13.

Among the reviews: A True Reality (Holly, I feel your pain), Teen Book Review, Trashionista. Visit Meg Cabot’s blog for more, as she’s been linking to blog reviews.