"Cross Your Heart, Connie Pickles," Sabine Durrant, Puffin Books; 2005; 247 pp.

This one is for the girls! The book cover of Sabine Durrant's debut teenage novel gives it straight: It promises "Boys, Bras and Ooh la las" and it delivers the goods packaged in pink with hearts on top. "Cross Your Heart, Connie Pickles" reads like the diary of Bridget Jones (at half her age), with all the usual fumbling around to find your place in a world where your first bra isn't the only thing that's uncomfortable.

Take Connie's Best Friend No. 1, Julie, who's great at spinning yarns and will do anything to have things her way. Then there's William, Best Friend No. 2, who sends all the other girls into a tizzy but cannot seem to make a dent with Connie. Best Friend No. 3 Delilah, meanwhile, is boy-crazy (this seems to be the natural fallout of going to a girls-only school). And there's Connie's young, widowed mother, who's French and oh-so-dateable if only Connie could find a man good enough for her.