What’s French For “Ew!”? is the third book revolving around Emily, a young teen forced to move with her parents to Britain. This young adult book written by Katie Maxwell (also known as Katie MacAlister) is a silly and amusing story that might annoy adults, but will most likely be great fun for teenagers.

In the first book, Emily moves to England, the second focuses on Scotland, and this third entry in the series finds Emily taking a two-week school trip to Paris with her friend Holly. Throughout this adventure, Emily emails her best friend in Seattle to tell her of the wacky problems she encounters. Although, for the most part, this style of storytelling works well, these emails may confuse some readers since a few go to friends and family and not to her Seattle friend. The only way to lessen the confusion is to read the email addresses.

Paris is supposed to be a brilliant vacation (during which Emily plans on losing her virginity to her boyfriend Devon), but things start to go downhill even before she leaves the country. The chaos begins when Emily’s underwear drawer catches fire while she’s trying to get rid of a poltergeist. The worst, though, is yet to come when Emily ends up getting stuck with a fake baby for a school class on preventing pregnancy who cries, eats, pees, and, even worse, can never leave Emily’s side. Though the baby was to stay in England, because of Emily’s misfortune (or more like her single-minded self-centeredness), the doll ends up going to France. With the ridiculous baby in tow, Emily assumes her trip is ruined. But plucky young girl that she is, Emily is soon having fun, even through a multitude of crazy events.

Even though many of her well-laid plans go awry, Emily still has Devon and her 17th birthday to look forward to – the day she plans on losing her virginity. But before that can happen, a series of sometimes amusing mishaps occur, including being locked inside Notre Dame and having to pee in a bucket, jumping into a polluted river to save a fake baby, and a human pile-up involving roller blades. Once adult readers get over the silly teen problems and the slightly annoying slang, these misadventures, along with some fun secondary characters, provide a few chuckles for even those well past their teens.

What’s French For “Ew!”? is a light, fun, and enjoyable read for teens. Adults will likely remember being as naive and self-centered as Emily or see these traits today in their own children. The plot wraps up a little too neatly in the end and Emily’s vocabulary was too “cute” for me – “nummy” was never a word in my vocabulary, not at age five, fifteen, or 25. The secondary characters are also all a little too forgiving of Emily and what she puts them through. And although there were many times when I was rolling my eyes while reading this book, Emily and her inane problems grew on me after a while.

Parents may have a problem with the sex talk and Emily’s desire to lose her virginity at age 17, but in the end she goes from a weak teen constantly worried asbout what her boyfriend thinks to a young girl taking command of her own life. To an adult these actions will seem inconsistent with her past attitude, but the message is still good for any teen. But because of the sex talk, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book for pre-teens.

Although the book can be read alone, the storyline and the secondary characters will be better understood if one reads the first two books beforehand. The silly fun of the book will make a nice get-away from the long, dull books that many teens are forced to read in school, and teenage girls will enjoy Emily’s wacky schemes with her boyfriend and girlfriends. Adults might enjoy the book, too, if they have a teenager of their own and if they can remember that the story is for young adults. In fact, when it comes down to it, this book is better than some of McAlister’s novels for grown ups.