Gorgeous

July 1, 2009
Gr 7-9-This second book about the Avery sisters retells the events in "Lucky" (HarperTeen, 2008) from the perspective of middle sister Allison. She sees herself as the plainest of the three, stuck between two pillars of perfection, and wishes she, too, were gorgeous. The ninth grader also has to come to terms with the effect that the loss of her mothers high-powered job has on the entire family. One night, she dreams that she has sold her cell phone to the devil in return for at least seven people who think she is gorgeous, and strangely, after the dream, things start to change in her life. She becomes friends with new girl Roxie Green, who talks her into cutting school and going to Manhattan for an open call for models for teen magazine "zip". To her utter amazement, Allison is selected as a finalist in its cover-model contest, but she then has to deal with the fallout from keeping this a secret from her family and from Roxie and with her fading friendship with her best friend. As always, Vail is spot-on in her depictions of young teen girls and their complex relationships with friends and family, and her treatment of the clichéd girl whom everyone thinks is plain becomes successful is fresh, innovative, and realistic. Allison is an engaging, funny character, and girls will identify with her disappointment with her looks and her longing for respect and recognition."Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2009
Grades 7-10 Because each title in the Avery Sisters Trilogy follows the same events from a different sisters point of view, teens can approach each novel as a stand-alone title. In this second installment, ninth-grader Allison feels like the unnoticed cynic of the family, trapped between two superstar sisters. In a dream sequence she sells her cell phone to the devil in return for being gorgeous, a dubious but eventually beneficial decision. Once again, Vail authentically captures the adolescent female experience, while interweaving the important message that Allison was uniquely beautiful all along.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2009
In this companion to Lucky, Allison sells her cell phone to the devil in exchange for beauty. Chosen as a semifinalist in a modeling competition, she thinks the devil's just holding up his end of the bargain. Meanwhile, there are family dramas and crushes to deal with. Allison is self-effacing and funny, privileged yet vulnerable; she and her friends are completely authentic.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2009
Allison Avery's six-word autobiography? "Sold my cell to the devil." It's quite simple, really: the ninth-grader has a vivid dream in which the devil agrees to make her gorgeous to seven people; in return, he gets to control her cell phone. When it starts emitting crazy ringtones and shutting off randomly, the dream certainly seems real. So when she's chosen as a semifinalist in a modeling competition and longtime crush Tyler Moss finally notices her, Allison refuses to think that these developments are anything but the devil's end of the bargain. If that weren't enough, there are family dramas and shifting best-friendships to deal with. The book is charged with emotion: the scenes between Allison and her parents, for example, are heartbreakingly tender. Allison is self-effacing and funny, privileged yet vulnerable. She and her friends are completely authentic, right down to their text messages ("I am ur BFF now"). Those who've read Lucky (the first book in the trilogy, told from little sister Phoebe's perspective) will enjoy Allison's side of the story -- and eagerly look forward to getting to know oldest sister Quinn in the upcoming Brilliant.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)