Sex Education Author: Jenny Davis. Pages: 150. Publisher: Laurel Leaf Books, 1988. Price: $2.95 paperback.

Sex Education is an intriguing novel about two friends, Livvie and David, whose lives are forever changed after they complete their biology project.

Fourteen-year-old Livvie is tired of being tossed around from school to school after she arrives in High Ridge for another temporary stay. This makes the sixth time she is the new kid in class forced to find her way through unknown corridors - until she meets David, a classmate and neighbor.

She admires David because he has lived in High Ridge almost his entire life and is friends with people he's known from kindergarten. He has never once been the new kid and had to explain himself to anyone.

After their eccentric biology teacher, Mrs. Fulton, spends her summer at the health department analyzing blood and urine samples of hundreds of pregnant teen-agers, she decides to change her biology curriculum, focusing the entire first semester on sex education. The class rejoices when they are told that everyone will receive an "A" if they participate in her classroom debates and off-the-wall projects.

For their term project, the students are assigned to care about someone they never thought of caring about. Livvie and David pair up and decide to focus on their mysterious new neighbors, the Parkers. Their high spirits are broken when Mr. Parker puts up a "No Tresspassing" sign and tells them to stay away from his wife. Glancing in their windows, Livvie and David see the pale, malnourished and pregnant Mrs. Parker, crying.

Now more than ever they want to help. Despite Mr. Parker's warning to stay away from his house, they discover Mrs. Parker's misery.

This is an excellent, well-written book that I was unable to put down. The ironic ending left me in shock. Another exciting turning point of the book occurs when Livvie and David finally meet Maggie Parker.

The title tells only a part of what the book is about. It is not only about the strange encounters Livvie and David experience as a result of their sex education class. It's also about how David and Livvie incorporate their classroom learnings into a caring and trusting relationship with each other. This book is highly recommended.