Memoirs of a teenage amnesiac

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her "Chief." She'd know about her mom's new family. She'd know about herdad's fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.

But Naomi picked heads.

After her remarkable debut, Gabrielle Zevin has crafted an imaginative second novel all about love and second chances.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac is a 2008 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

From Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac "Are you Ace?" I asked, remembering what James had said about my having a boyfriend. Will removed his black rectangular-framed glasses and wiped them on his pants, which were gray wool like James's had been. I would later learn that removing his glasses was something Will did when embarrassed, as if not seeing something clearly could in some way distance him from an awkward situation. "No, I most definitely am not," he said. "Ace's about six inches taller than me. And also, he's your boyfriend." A second later, Will's eyes flashed something mischievous. "Okay, so this is deeply wrong. I want it on the record that you are acknowledging that this is deeply wrong before I even say it." "Fine. It's wrong," I said. "Deeply -" "Deeply wrong." "Good." Will nodded. "I feel so much better that you don't remember him either. By the by, your man's a dolt not to come." "Dolt?" Who used dolt? "Tool. No offense." "Leave. Right now," I said in a mock stern tone. "You go too far insulting Ace . . . What's his last name?" "Zuckerman." "Right. Zuckerman. Yeah, I'm really outraged about you insulting the boyfriend I don't remember anyway." "You might be later and if that's the case, I take it all back. Visiting hours only started a minute ago, so he'll probably still come," Will said, by way of encouragement I suppose. "If it were my girlfriend, I would have been waiting outside before visiting hours." Excerpted from Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac by Gabrielle Zevin All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.