Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Snog Log
Fiction
For ages 12 and up
Marshall Cavendish, 2009 ISBN: 978-0761456094
Twilly has come up with a bold idea, and he challenges his friends Robbie, Greg, and Daz to join him in a contest, a Snogathon (kissathon) contest. The boy who earns the most snogging points before the end of the term wins the one hundred pound purse. Eight girls are to be potential snog partners, and they are handicapped according to their likely willingness to be snogged. Twilly starts a snog log in a blank book that Mr. Carmichael, the English teacher, gave everyone at the beginning of the term. When he gave his students their books, Mr. Carmichael asked them to use the books to record their thoughts and emotions. It is unlikely that the teacher ever expected Twilly to use the book as a snog log.
Robbie never plans on using the book at all. After all writing about feelings is lame. Right? Somehow he does ending up using it though, to record his snogathon adventures. Melanie, one of the girls on the snog partners list, also uses the book. She describes her feelings for Mr. Carmichael, her confusion about her friends’ ridiculous pursuit of boys, and her own thoughts regarding said boys. She thinks they are a waste of space.
At the beginning of the term, Robbie thinks the snogathon is a pretty decent idea and he strategizes as much as the other boys to try to get as many points as possible. Then he starts to notice the way his friend Mr. Zyg treats his wife with esteem and love. He begins to understand that girls are not things. They are people who deserve respect and who have thoughts and feelings of their own.
Then Mel finds out, quite by accident, about the snogathon, and the girls decide that a little revenge is in order. Who knew that a simple contest and a few blank notebooks could cause so much trouble.
Ruled by stereotypical ideas and hormones, many teens fail to really make an effort to understand what members of the opposite sex are actually like. Boys are often too busy looking at long legs and “bazookas” to notice that there is a person attached to those body parts. This book addresses this issue with humor and sensitivity. Through Mel and Robbie’s words and experiences, we come to see that people have hidden depths. They have feelings that can be hurt, and they have strengths and gifts that even they don’t know they have.
