The Secret Journey of Pauline Siddhartha.

Susan Merskey is freelance writer in London, Ontario.

This trilogy, collectively titled Pauline, chronicles a 15-month period in the life of Pauline Carelli-Bloom, schoolgirl and author. When we first meet her, in The Thrilling Life of Pauline de Lammermoor, she is almost 14. She has decided to write about her life and has lots to say about her friends, school, and even her crazy, bit-of-a-screw-loose family. Once she gets started, basing her methods on the advice of one Zane Burbank, author of You Too Can Write a Great Novel, Pauline discovers that writing about her life isn’t really so hard. Living it? Well that’s another story, which unfolds as she chronicles the events of her summer. A good start to the series.

In The Mysterious Adventures of Pauline Bovary, which follows directly on from the first book, Pauline’s life is crazier than ever, if that’s possible. Her best friend, Genevieve, moves to Toronto to train for the Olympics. There is a potentially mysterious, but definitely cute, new guy at school. And her newly divorced parents are dating new people, which is very, very weird. This book certainly lives up to the standard set by the first. It is perhaps the one which most closely reflects the angst felt by so many early teenagers.

The Secret Journey of Pauline Siddhartha sees Pauline visiting her grandmother, Daphne, in London, England. The city is just as exciting as she imagined—an incredible blur of double-decker buses, museums, galleries, and gardens—and she describes it well. And things just get better when she meets some of Daphne’s New Age friends. Especially Nigel, a spiritual teacher who she hopes will help her find the path to enlightenment—or something. A number of open questions affecting her life are settled, and the book reaches a triumphant end as Pauline’s first two books are accepted for publication.

The books are written in a quirky style and use language which doubtless appeals immensely to the teenage audience for whom they are intended. As Pauline grows older, so her approach to life and all its questions becomes more mature. The style of writing improves noticeably as the books progress, too, and her observations, always acute, also become sharper. But the sense of questioning and sense of fun which colours even the most serious events in Pauline’s life shines through all three books—a similar sense of questioning also pervades the author’s adult books. Each of the three is complete in itself, but there is no doubt that reading them together improves the reader’s enjoyment. Recommended.