Soon she's writing off for college applications and spending the rest of her time trailing after Carrie Draper, who's hellbent on infiltrating the celebrity circuit. Emboldened, she decides she can’t waste her brain power on a job at ‘Mr Yolk’, the local greasy spoon. Well if by 'Chav' you mean 'Charming, Hilarious, Articulate and Vibrant', Shizza doesn't mind that at all. There's not much goin' on in the world of this lovable dreamer, and having a brain and a heart of gold only makes it worse.

Complete with an index of Shiraz' slang, you can be sure this isn't the last you'll hear from Miss Wood (if only because several sequels are already available in the UK). I highly recommend that you, or any teenager or adult you know, join Shiraz in her journey through teenage life, and I apologise if you think these books are way past their sell-by date, I’m just ‘keeping it real’.Soon home in Goodmayes seems like the only place to be, sorrounded by everyone she’s grown up with, people she loves to bits…Can Shiraz give up her dreams? But Shiraz BW will not give up - she's going to finish what she started, even if she does keep looking out of the crappy flat window to see if there's a Banana Yellow Golf parked up front. I may not have understood everything she was saying (thankfully there was an English dictionary for all the American cousins) but the girl is bloody brilliant!

As an American reader, I was somewhat confused by the unfamiliar British slang and put off by the poor grammar, although I assume the lingo is part of “keeping it real. I'm not gonna give away the plot but any girl (or boy if you really want to read a really girly book) will enjoy it. Shiraz doesn't think Bezzie is all that, but Carrie can't see beyond having such a grand guy, and the friendship starts to suffer. For those of you that absolutely can not wait, you can get your hands on this and more in the series from Great Britain. I'd elaborate on what I liked, but I forgot to update when I finished it - a year ago - and now I've forgotten everything I loved about it, other than the main character's character development was top notch.Tiaras; Shiraz worries that her school Mayflower Comprehensive will still live up to its reputation of being "Superchav Academy" a nickname given to the school by the local newspapers and especially with a stunt that happened during the Christmas assembly which Shiraz was the instigator of; however, that all started to change, once a new English teacher Miss. Kind of a cliched premise, but the clever writing, genuinely likeable characters, and realistic focus on class issues (something that you almost never see in American writing) raise it above your typical teen novel. And that's really a shame, because buried underneath all the working class British slang and alien cultural references is a sweet story of a girl realizing that she's not as tough as she thinks she is and that there's a whole wide world out there. OUR Essex is a blue-collar community, with a reputation for teen pregnancy, lottery addiction, and recreational drug use. And since I had an ARC, the book only had about five of the British words in the glossary, while the published copy will have a "full glossary of about 12-16 pages.

Entertaining with lots of English slang that really did require the glossary at the back of the book, at times! For more adventures of Shiraz, look for POSH AND PREJUDICE (SLING THE BLING in Great Britain) due out in June 2009.

Shiraz is the kind of kid who has a brain full of words, but isn't challenged or engaged by much in the school department. Shiraz has numerous problems including a runaway sister, an obese dog, and a mother who doesn’t seem understanding.