The Snog Log

by Michael Coleman

.Forget readathons and swimathons, Robbie and his mates have invented a new challenge of their own for the coming a snogathon! Robbie's #1 target is Mel Bradshaw, but she's going to be a tough nut to crack. Mel's got a target of her own - new poetry teacher Dave Carmichael.

It proves to be a term in which the characters learn a lot about love and emotions and poetry and snogging - but especially about themselves.

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"A story remarkable for its insights into young teenage behaviour and an understanding of the female as well as the male sense of worth ... Conflicting feelings about school, learning, family relationships, love, real affection, loyalty, crushes and sexual exploitation are portrayed with a sympathetic humour while the outrageous Snogathon is full of funny incidents ... A very entertaining and positive novel - School Librarian, UK

"It made me laugh and mid-way into the book I was totally hooked! You must read until the end as it has a strong conclusion." - Cool-reads

"The best book I have read this year. It has a good beginning, a great middle and an even better end."; "A really enjoyable read, full of laughs and suspense"; "It was great to hear about life, school and girls from a boys' perspective ... I thought it was written by a teenager!" - all from Lancashire Awards Supplement

"The dialogue was golden" - teen reviewer for the US print edition

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The Snog Log was originally published in print form in the UK by Orchard Books and in the US by Marshall Cavendish.

Paperback

First published October 25, 2001

About the author

Coleman was born in Forest Gate, a suburb in east London. Not long after he was born, his family moved a few miles east to Barking. At the time of his arrival, the area was just starting to recover from the damage it had received during World War II. He lived in a house on Bevan Avenue, named after Aneurin Bevan the architect of the National Health Service. He lived in that estate for 20 years. The area helped develop Coleman's love of sport due to the oblong shaped lanes of grass leading up the estate, which could be used as mini-stadiums. He pretended to play at various sporting events of the time, e.g. the Melbourne Olympics of 1956, the soccer Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, and the games at Lords Cricket ground. He still has medals he won for being school champion in the 100m sprint and the long jump. As said by Coleman himself "My information series Foul Football tries to convey some of the magic I felt about the game of soccer by relating the weird and wonderful history of the game and the personalities it has seen over the years. On the fiction side, my series about a junior soccer team called Angels FC tries to bring out the humour and sheer fun that you’ll find at the heart of the game when it’s played by youngsters who don’t even know how to spell the word cynicism." Coleman had his first children’s book published when he was 46 years of age. He has also said: "I didn't [want to become a writer] at first. I used to teach computer science at a university and my first book was a boring one about computers. I livened it up by putting a few jokes in. At the end I thought I'd try writing a few more things, but this time forgetting about the computers and concentrating on the jokes. After lots of failures I realised that youngsters enjoy jokes more than adults and started writing for them. Eighty books later, I'm still doing it...I write both fact and fiction. The Foul Football series are favourite fact books, simply because they're about football. On the fiction side, I'm just finishing a trilogy called The Bearkingdom. They're dark and scary, quite different to anything I've written before."

Reviews

[Mikaela · Rating 1 out of 5]

Grossest book ever. It totally accepted and actually encouraged the random "snogging" of as many girls the guys could get their hands on. Not only that but they RATED them on just how easy they were. No offence- actually a lot of offence- but that is just disgursting. I can not see the appeal of this book at all. And the ending. Big whoop- one of the guys pulled his head out of his butt and realised girls actually were people with feelings and didn't like to be TOTALLY VILIFIED! What a genius... not.

I apoligise if I've offended anyone, but this just did not appeal to me at all.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A telethon? A readathon? No! A Snogathon was what Robbie, Daz, Greg, and Twilly had come up with to make their first semester, well…….. a bit more exciting.
Freshly into high school, four boys, Robbie, Daz, Twilly, and Greg come up with a contest, a snogging contest! With each snoggful encounter of every girl the four boys persuade into their “evil” sceme, credits will earned. The winner with the most credits at the end of their first term will get the jackpot of money that was put in with the rules of the contest before it had started. But what will happen when one of these girls finds out what they are up to? Will they seek revenge? I have enjoyed reading this book very much. I really liked how the book kinda went back and forth from boy to girl, to boy to girl, almost as if it is kind of like the boys vs. the girls. I also like how towards the end of the book the boys thought they had the girls wrapped around their fingers but it just so happened that girls knew more than they thought. The one thing out of the book that I didn’t like was how towards the middle of the book the story calmed down and was not as exciting like the beggining, but I appreciated how it started picking up speed towards the end.
If you were the type of person who liked more of real life high school genres then this book would be the one for you. I would recommend this book to more middle school audiences because the book had more teenaged type of auctions.​The Snog Log really kept me guessing!

[Danelle Deonath]

This is the book that got me into writing poems instead of "Dear diary" journal entries as a pre-teen

[Christa Sigman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was not sure how I would feel about this story considering I am a forty-something woman. But I taught middle school and have spent countless hours volunteering in high school and I thought it was true to the crazy ideas kids cook up and the lessons learned were also realistic. I do not believe in any way was it encouraging these kinds of contests - instead it showed that things don't always work out the way you perceive they will

[Jean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Matt suggested I read this. It reminded me a bit of Angus,Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging, but not as funny and narrated by a boy. Interesting, tho, that the characters seem to be more working class than in most British kid's books I've read, and that the "hero" is the class clown. Not a great book, but gets a bit better at the end as the characters grow and change.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very easy to read and entertaining. It is actually from more of a boys perspective which is interesting... seeing it is about kissing girls and it is a teenage boy.... I did like it. The British words make me laugh

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

snog snog snog <3

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when i was young, and it is definitely a book for young teenagers. The story was good and interesting and funny.

[Read for your future! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Taylor's review here:
http://readforyourfuture.blogspot.com...

[Ramesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute.