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The It Girl

by Cecily von Ziegesar



      The It Girl is a spin off from the Gossip Girl series. Jenny Humphrey was put out of Gossip Girl's Constance Billard school because of her disgraceful behavior. But Jenny is never really disgraceful - she just finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time - a lot. She resolves to get a fresh start at an elite boarding school, Waverly Academy, but it isn't long before she finds herself the target of misunderstanding and scandalous gossip. But Jenny is not a quitter - she will remake her reputation, and she will get along with her popular new roommates, or get expelled trying. The character of Jenny Humphrey is such a delightfully confused mess that she has much more of an "every teen" feeling than you usually find in these rich-kids-behaving-badly novels. Even her self-absorbed roommates have believable motivation - in many ways, they're kids trying to figure out how to be adults. What teen doesn't understand that? Although the characters are a bit too casual about drugs, alcohol and cigarettes for my prudish sensibilities, I found the book compelling. Several of the male characters were more three-dimensional than any found in the Gossip Girl series so it looks like Ziegesar is really growing as a writer - she can do high fashion, whispery gossip, and characterization. This is the best of her books that I've seen. If your teen is going to sneak a guilty pleasures book - this is one of the better ones.

The Book

Little, Brown and Company / TimeWarner
November 2005
Trade Paperback
0316011851
Young Adult / Chick Lit
More at Amazon.com
Excerpt
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The Reviewer

Jan Fields
Reviewed 2005
NOTE: Reviewer Jan Fields is the editor of Kid Magazine Writers emagazine and has written dozens of stories and articles for the children's magazine market.
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