Korman, Gordon. Jake, reinvented.

Hyperion. 213p. c2003. 0-7868-1957-X. $15.99. S

In this homage to The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald High has a new student, Jake Garrett, who throws the best parties and is considered the coolest guy in town. He dresses like "he'd just waltzed off the pages of the J. Crew catalog," he drives a Beamer, and he gets off football snaps "like a cruise missile." Every guy wants to be invited to his bashes, and every girl wants to be with him, but he only wants drop-dead gorgeous Didi, the girlfriend of Todd, the school quarterback. Narrator Rick tells the tragic tale as Jake manages to gets together with the girl of his dreams, though she refuses to stop seeing Todd. When violence erupts at a dangerously over-the-top final party, Jake takes the fall for Didi. In the end he is exposed as a lovelorn poseur, a former math geek and term paper writer for cash who has remade his image and plotted for years to win the prize of Didi, only to see it all slip away.

Korman, author of Son of the Mob, No More Dead Dogs, and other books for young readers, is an accomplished writer who succeeds in making this plot work in an updated context. The dialog is snappy, and there is humor as well as heartbreak. YAs will recognize the common high school types here and eat up the details of the wild parties. Be sure to bring this to the attention of English teachers, who might enjoy using it in a unit on The Great Gatsby, Paula Rohrlick, KLIATT

S--Recommended for senior high school students.