M or F?

M or F?
by Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebbetts
YA fiction. 296 pp.
Razorbill (Penguin). 2005.

This is a rather enjoyable adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. Girl likes Boy. Girl sees Boy in the high school chat room as he's trying to recruit volunteers for a service project. Girl gets nervous and has Gay Best Friend do the typing in the chat room for her. Comedy and High School Drama ensue from there. There are some fun twists here and there leading up to the final resolution.

admittedly, I was a bit hesitant about picking up the book at first because it has two authors who alternate chapters. This can be done well or it can be done quite poorly as a copout for an author incapable of creating multiple characters to narrate through. I was pleased to see that it worked in this instance. Marcus and Frannie have distinct personalities and the story is nicely integrated and tied together. There were a few glitches here and there that should have been caught by a good editor or a decent copyeditor. Of course, maybe I'm just noticing those because I'm not giving enough attention and devotion to my own books.