Dancing in my Nuddy-Pants (Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, #4)
By Louise Rennison
I'm starting where I left off after years of not reading this series. I then remember why I started it: Angus the cat, her eccentric little sister with an odd habit of calling Georgia a,"Bad boy.", (the kid is weird and all Georgia's strange friends help prove it, too). Georgia is still googly-eyed over the Sex God, Robbie and is dealing with normal teenage doldrums of parental flip outs and a ditsy friend. Also, Georgia's self-involved yet hilarious considerations towards her friends and how involved she is with high school social behavior, steeped in stupidity, is easy to tolerate since every character is mad as a hatter and going through puberty, (which could be part of the cause of said madness).
It's mega-ly (which I know isn't a real word, but am inspired by Rennison) entertaining continuing on with this series, I'm glad I'm able to revisit it, without having to go back to the beginning. Georgia also has some way with words, which I've forgotten about, it's cutesy and slightly jilting, but amusing usually since it doesn't happen every sentence, but quite a bit often. She's fantastically sarcastic in a dead-pan straight-forward way; It's what I appreciate about her character. I admire Rennison's talent with double entendres and making child-fluffed Monty Python.
Also Georgia's parent's are bloody hilarious individually, but I do quite like her father's character who insults her through his weird jokes. Many of the minor characters are also unbelievably hilarious. I particularly liked when Georgia goes ga-ga over a French boy and makes a girl laugh for 5 minutes because of Georgia's reaction of said boy. Sometimes there are moments which make me want to laugh out loud but I resist the urge, due to being too tired or it being too late at night to laugh at the volume necessary to give it justice. Georgia is so transparently kooky sometimes, which is one of the reasons why it's so funny to read about her.
For instance, Georgia has a moment freaking herself out seeing her own nose, close-up. In other cases, it might take one back to the kind of dorky ideas one had in school with their goofy buddies agreeing hastily, "Oh my God, that will be freaking' hilarious!" Plus Angus' kitty drama is one of a kind, "Scottish wild cat" indeed..Rawr. Georgia continues to suppress some feelings over others, because she's a child and it's the more fun decision of the two she has to make.
The fact I see it more obviously makes it more fun laughing at the odd-ball plans she implements. It will be fun to see how it all goes down, though. Then Georgia and Jas (her peculiar buddy throughout her adventures) run into some perv-y 9-year-old boys trying to get a look up their skirts as they go up stairs in Paris. Georgia "side-steps" the possibility of a risque moment pretty gracefully, as I perceive myself giggling under my breath.
Those are the moments I cherish in these stories (which there are plenty of). It has child-like moments comparable to Monty Python, like I mentioned before, when one of Georgia's buddies, whilst all of them are wearing "gag" big Berets when coming back from Paris, everyone is wondering if the reaction of the Parisians to them bidding them adieu is genuine and them sitting back and noticing Georgia's buddy Rosie is wearing a false mustache, as well. The more I read, the more I realize how smart of a story Rennison has created here. The characters all have funny quirks, Georgia is displaying her "red bottomosity" quality, which she happens to share with her mother, genetically, that is. (It trips me out how cleverly done this was and it only makes me happier I found this series when it still counted: childhood.) Rennison even had the foresight to quote Douglas Adams near the end of the book.
By the end Georgia is dealing with Robbie's foray into concern for the environment and has to deal with the events regarding them which will affect their future relationship. Also the useful and amusing Glossary of "British" words are a kick to go through. A delightful continuation.
