Snadowsky, Daria. Anatomy of a boyfriend.

SNADOWSKY, Daria. Anatomy of a boyfriend. Random House, Delacorte. 259p. c2007. 978-0-385-73320-5. $16.99. S

Appropriately, this book is dedicated to Judy Blume, and it may be the kind of groundbreaking novel that Forever was when first published a generation ago. It tells of first love. Two high school seniors, good students, fall in love; but shyness and sexual inexperience dominate their relationship. They see each other for weeks without even kissing because they both are embarrassed to reveal that at 17 years old they have never kissed anyone. Well, kissing leads to petting and mutual masturbation, and finally to sexual intercourse over the next months--detail by detail, just like in a kind of sex manual. Various types of condoms, even a dental dam, are described in detail, as are step-by-step first experiences with "hand jobs" and "blow jobs." When Dominique worries that she has never experienced an orgasm, even after multiple sexual experiences with her love, Wes, and plenty of opportunity to masturbate, her best friend gives her a vibrator at Christmas and her problems are solved. Just like in Judy Blume's Forever, the emotional experiences of first love are described as poignantly and as graphically as are the physical experiences, which makes this a novel and not a sex manual. Dom and Wes are obsessed with one another, in every way, yet when they are separated their freshman year in college, within months the relationship changes and fades. Getting through the grief of a failed romance is as important to their story as the sexual details. Snadowsky writes with real compassion for her teenage characters, and this means she cares about her readers. She wants to convey useful information as much as she wants to entertain with a moving story of romance--clearly this is not a story meant to titillate or shock, even though it might have that effect on some readers. Claire Rosser, KLIATT

S--Recommended for senior high school students.