Nina E. Grøntvedt
Absolutely Unkissed

NB: This is NOT a mushy love story!!!

SPRING. 12-year-old Ida is back, ready for new adventures, drawing and writing it all down in her top-secret diary. And, once again, Helen and Ida are best friends. However, something feels different, although Ida can’t pinpoint what it is. Also, she cannot stop thinking about Simon. And the fact that she’ll soon be starting high school, the school Simon goes to, and Ida has never EVER been kissed! And how do you go about being an experienced kisser, if you have absolutely no experience? Something needs to be done. Then one day a new boy moves in next door, and everyone just LOVES him. Everyone except Ida…

This sequel is humorous and serious, heart-warming and convincing. After the success of Hey, it’s me!, Nina E. Grøntvedt has delivered again. Absolutely Unkissed went straight into the bestseller list for children’s fiction in Norway, when published in September 2012.

Illustrated by the author, in black and white.

Nina E. Grøntvedt

Photo: Tittmelhuus.no

Author and illustrator Nina E. Grøntvedt is from Trondheim, Norway. She lived one year in Texas, USA, as a teen, and then six years in Southampton, England, in her twenties. Her debut as a writer was with the picture book The Little Hero in 2006. The sequel, The Little Hero and the Cat Kidnapper was published in 2008.

Grøntvedt achieved her international breakthrough with the novel Hey it’s me!, published in 2010. This fictional diary has been compared to the Diaries of Adrian Mole, and is somewhat similar in layout to the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and the Dork Diaries, although Grøntvedt’s novel gives the impression that the story is actually written, told and illustrated by the protagonist of the story herself, a 12-year-old Norwegian girl.