Withering Tights

In a cousin series to the Georgia Nicholson books, Louise Rennison has created a  new heroine for the middle school crowd. Tullulah Casey is off to Dother Hall, a private performing arts school, in Yorkshire to unearth all her acting talents.  Hopefully she can also simulatneously burry her legs, which she feels are way to long for her own good.  She also wouldn't be opposed to meeting a few boys either.

Because she applied late, Tullulah doesn't actually get to stay at Dother Hall, rather with a rather odd but loving Dobbins family in the town adjacent to the school.  And it turns out that that Dother Hall doesn't have boys anymore because of, well hormones.  Yorkshire isn't a total bust though because it turns out that there is a boys school nearby and you never know who you'll meet in the woods!  A sweet and eccentric group of new gal friends, a group of zany teachers, and a genuine Heathcliff archetype make this story full entertaining.

It wouldn't be a Rennison book if there weren't plenty of inside jokes, British slang (and probably a few made-up words), and abounding confusion about who is interested in whom.  Tulluah's summer adventures aren't quite as screamingly hilarious her cousin Georgia but they are still funny enough to keep me wanting to read the rest of the series.