Are these my Basoomas I see before me?

Hello, no worries I haven't just suddenly realised that I was born a woman. I have decided to write a less detailed post tonight. I feel slightly written out so thought I would just tell you about one of my favourite things.

The Georgia Nicolson diaries by Louise Rennison. This is a series of ten fictional stories, for teenagers written in the style of a diary by the character Georgia who when we first meet her in 'Angus Thongs and full-frontal snogging' is fourteen years old, struggling with school, friends, her parents and mostly BOYS!

Achieved by the stylistic choice to write in a diary form, Louise manages to make extremely relevant books that can appeal universally to all teenage girls around the world. The writing is comic genius, Georgia literally has her own language and every other word she writes is usually in German or French as she makes fun of the words learnt in her lessons at school. 'I went and stood really near to Jas. She ignorez-voused me.' I don't know why but I always found it hilariously funny to read her moan, 'Quest-ce le point?' as if she has simply asked 'what is the point' it would not have been anywhere near as funny! In the back of the latter books, there is a section called 'Georgia's Glossary' which contains her definitions for all her invented words and for the everyday colloquialisms we use but do not quite know where they come from. For example,'Nippy noodles - Instead of saying "Cor heavens it's quite cold this morning," you say "Cor it's nippy noodles!!" English is an exciting and growing language. it is. Believe me. Just leave it at that. Accept it.' or 'Bugger(ation) - A swear word. It doesn't really mean anything but neither do a lot of swear words. Or parents.' There are also scales for mates, having the hump and snogging, the possibilities for further teenage understanding are endless. She gives you pearls I promise.

I think the greatest achievement of Louise, is that she has created Georgia to be the epitome of every teenage girl. She worries about the size of her nose, whether or not to self-tan, how to snog a boy, how to avoid her parents from embarrassing her on a regular basis, or her four year old sister from peeing in her bed! Her diary updates could be separated from a few hours to a few seconds. We are literally transported into her mind at that moment:

9.00am
Why. Oh why oh why?

9.02am
Why me?

9.03
And I'll just say this. Why?

Just completely ridiculous but equally completely realistic!! We are then not made to feel silly for ever worrying about these things, we see the drastic measures she goes to, just to get a boy to like her. After comparison we can see that we are just as random, silly, and crazy as every other fourteen year old girl.

The first two books were made into one film entitled, 'Angus, thongs and perfect snogging' and directed by Gurinda Chadha released in 2008. Many fans were disappointed with the representation, I however found it sweet, funny and was transported back to my days at school, remembering what it was like to be fourteen myself. Aaron Johnson playing the lead love interest, 'Sex God' as Georgia calls him, may have had something to do with my enjoyment.

I have read the series throughout my teenage years and just went out today to buy the paperback version of her tenth and final book which came out on February 4th entitled 'Are these my basoomas I see in front of me?' I await with the excitement of how it will all turn out for Georgia, I see so much of myself in her as does every other teenage girl out there I am sure, so I am keen to see if she will get her happy ending in hope I might one day too :)