My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters

April 13, 2009
The tougher side of catching a boyfriend is depicted with humor and understanding in this first novel. Sharp-witted, accident-prone Jory Michaels knows she is klutzy, but she is more apt to blame her “Super Schnozz” than her clumsiness for her nonexistent love life. The summer after her junior year in high school, she hopes to decrease her “99.9 percent” chance of “dying a virgin” by saving up for a nose job and winning the heart of cute classmate Tyler. Nothing goes as planned, and the results are simultaneously painful and hilarious. Salter captures the awkwardness of adolescence while driving home a message about self-acceptance. Jory's all-too-perfect athlete brother and image-conscious mother act as effective foils to the heroine, while her friends Megan and Hannah are reminders that no one is perfect. If Jory's missteps and disasters become a little redundant, her responses to misfortune remain fresh. Ages 12–up.

May 1, 2009
Gr 9 Up-It's the summer before senior year and Jory is obsessing over two things: her giant nose and hottie Tyler Briggs. Believing that she can't have Tyler and a "Super Schnozz," she takes a job delivering cakes to save money for surgery. During a delivery, she meets Gideon, a guy with big brown eyes and an equally big nose. She's attracted to him, but is worried about what dating him will do to her social status. To complicate matters, Jory and her friend Megan compete for Tyler's attentions while Jory's mother, in an effort to be thin, forces her family to join her in crazy fad diets. As the pressure mounts, the teen, who begins to date Gideon, desperately looks to guys for validation and naively believes that a perfect nose will beget a perfect life. Readers will identify with her insecurities, but might be turned off by her melodrama. The humor is forced and the character development superficial. Salter literally writes off the unattainable Tyler just as his story line gets interesting. Teens looking for a character with a big nose and an even bigger sense of humor should read Emily Franklin's " At Face Value" (Flux, 2008), which features a modern-day Cyrano de Bergerac. "My Big Nose" is strictly an additional purchase."Kimberly Garnick Giarratano, Rockaway Township Public Library, NJ"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2009
Grades 8-12 The summer before senior year is Jorys last chance to transform herself and leave behind her mediocre grades, unrequited crushes, and especially her ugly nose. Intent on earning money for a nose job, shefinds a job delivering wedding cakes near her home in Reno, Nevada, even though she can barely handle a stick shift, never mind parallel parking. In her wry, spirited voice, Jory reveals her jealousy of her girlfriends, mistakes at work, conflict with her appearance-obsessed mom, muddles with various boys (including one who turns out to be gay), and, always, her anguish over her proboscis. Obsession is boring and repetitive, and this first novel is too long in descriptions of Jorys mess-ups and the message-heavy resolutions, as she learns to see the best in herself and finds the perfect boyfriend. But the contemporary dialogue is rapid and funny, and teens will enjoy Joryscomic self-deprecation and the way she gets the signals wrong, both while driving and on dates.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)