Recently my niece turned fifteen.  I decided to buy her a couple of books to read.  Share my love of literature with the younger generation etc.

Here are the constraints:
1. She is not into fantasy or sci-fi.
2. I don't want buy her a completely fluff - bordering on offensive book, such as this garbage.  (One of the reviews even said something like Teens can learn how the rich and famous live.  Right.)

There have been a lot of  light women's fiction (aka chick lit) ported to the teen group.  However, some of the books I read while I was in the store did not handle issues of sexuality and body image appropriately for that age group.

So what to buy?  I found the book "Alice, I think" by Canadian author Susan Juby.

 I just finished reading it myself and encouragingly, it is similar to the Judy Blume novels that were the main stay of my generation of girls.  "Alice, I Think" accurately reflected the awkwardness of being a teenager.  However, the protagonist, Alice, grew up with an 'alternative lifestyle' (home schooled and actively hippy parents). So, sometimes Alice was hard to relate to (even for me) and I'm not certain how well other teenagers would relate to her.

Still I was happy to see that there is an author trying to offer teenagers fiction that is a reflection of the world that they actually live in.  I look forward to reading more of Juby's work.