It might be worth explaining the origin of the word in the
title of the book:

Nunga nungas is what Ellen’s brother
and his mates call girls’ basoomas. He
says it is because if you pull a girl’s breast and let it go…..it goes
nunga-nunga-nunga. He is obviously a
touch on the mental side.

This third book of “confessions of
Georgia Nicolson” by Louise Rennison continues the tale of 15-year-old girl’s
obsession about boys – especially her boyfriend Robbie, a.k.a. “Sex God” who
plays in a band, “The Stiff Dylans – and the total embarrassment and
inconvenience caused by her family. 
Georgia continues to have a great way with words; here’s a typical
entry:

Tuesday November 2^nd,
10.00 p.m.

I must stop being jelloid woman
every time I see the Sex God.

Why oh why did I day “I’m away
laughing on a fast camel” instead of goodbye? 
What is the matter with me?

However on the whole taking things
by and large….Yessssssss!!!!!

I live at Snogging
Headquarters. My address is

Georgia Nicolson

Snogging Headquarters

Snog Lane

Snoggington.

American readers of the previous books in the series should
already know that a snog is an encounter between two people (normally young)
involving enthusiastic kissing with plenty of exchanges of bodily fluids and
often accompanied by furtive groping. 
(It is part of Georgia’s beliefs that married people do not snog, and
that it’s disgusting for adults to engage in any such activity.)

Much of Knocked
Out concerns Georgia’s enthusiasm for snogging, the details how to snog
(for example, whether it is best to use lip-gloss or lipstick or both if you
know you will be snogging later on), and where her friends and their boyfriends
are on the snogging scale. The snogging
scale starts at 1 (holding hands), going through 4 (kiss lasting over three
minutes without a breath) and 7 (upper body fondling – indoors (in bed)) to 10
(the full monty). The rest of the book
is devoted to the family holiday to Scotland, or “Och aye land” as she calls
it, and her cat Angus, who continues to run amok in their neighborhood, even
after Georgia’s father insists on taking him to the vet for an operation causing
irreparable damage to his masculinity.

Although
Georgia is not a great student, and shows no more respect for her parents than
Bart Simpson, she seems pretty healthy in her growing confidence about her
relationships with boys and her friendships with girls. Her greatest strength is her use of
language, since it is both very funny and evocative. Although Americans may be slightly baffled by her words (helpfully,
there is a glossary at the back of the book for the perplexed), at least
Anglophiles will take great pleasure in Georgia’s rantings.

© 2002 Christian Perring. First Serial Rights.

Christian
Perring, Ph.D., is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College,
Long Island. He is editor of Metapsychology Online Review. His main
research is on philosophical issues in psychiatry. He is especially interested
in exploring how philosophers can play a greater role in public life, and he is
keen to help foster communication between philosophers, mental health
professionals, and the general public.

Categories: Children