don't judge a book by its cover. for realz.

in order to prepare (if that's possible?) for my upcoming job, i've decided to take a hiatus from reading all of candace bushnell's books (if you don't know her stuff, you should -- http://www.candacebushnell.com/) and focus on things i might be able to recommend to kids.

not that sex and the city and lipstick jungle aren't worthy of recommendations ... because they so are.  but maybe just not to tweens.  and just for the record, i'm not thinking of that as censorship.  i'm just thinking of it as responsible librarianship.  and while i'm being honest about what i think, i'm not so sure some of the things in those books are completely appropriate for adults, but whatever. still good.

don't judge me because i haven't read some of
the INSANELY popular ones. better late than never, right?

anyways, i went to the bookstore (i know ... not the library. but i didn't want to wait for the books because i'm the world's most impatient library patron) and picked up some books that were on a middle grades list ... and some others just because i thought they should be on the list, even if they weren't.  and after reading the backs of the books and realizing they were more often than not FAR from my genre of choice, i decided i needed a solid princess diaries type book.  essentially, fancy nancy in middle school.  

after reading the back of the books and scrutinizing the covers (shameful, i know), i settled on a megan-type book about a girl who wants to fit in and has two gorgeous and famous parents.  i thought it was a slam dunk book (which basically means an easy read about an ugly duckling who eventually becomes sassy and beautiful just like her rockstar parents).  

OMG PEOPLE I WAS SO WRONG.

now that's not to say it wasn't a good book.  it was.  i read it almost straight through because it was so gripping, but holy cow was i off base.  and if you don't want it spoiled, stop reading here.

the stars and happy writing on
the cover?  TRICKS.

okay you've continued reading, so i'm about to spoil.  so the girl i thought was an ugly duckling?  well, she does have famous, beautiful parents that make her feel slightly inadequate, and when she moves to a new school she has all the same insecurities that new kids have.  as she's struggling to fit in with the popular crowd that likes her for her parents' fame, her mom gets cancer (and dies), her dad relapses with his alcoholism and causes a terrible wreck which sends him to jail and then alcohol rehab, and hannah (the main character) ... well she decides she's not pretty enough or skinny enough to be in the popular crowd AND deal with all this crap from life so she starts throwing up.  

and i'm not just saying it's alluded to in the book.  full out details on her binge eating and purging are all over those pages.  which of course makes it real and carries such a huge impact upon the reader, but WOW.  not princess diaries chick lit like i was expecting.  

but again -- it was a good book.  maybe a little graphic and detailed for someone with as weak a stomach as myself, but hannah's struggle with fitting in and dealing with all that stuff at once?  that's real life, folks.  

albeit she was dealing with EVERYTHING at once, but still ... the girl was able to be real about her "issues" (as she called them), learn to be happy again and love herself, and of course ... snag a true winner of a boyfriend in the end.

[side note: while some books tend to gloss over the details, this doesn't leave much to the imagination.  and as startling as that was, from someone with no background on how haunting bulimia and alcoholism can be, this stuff seemed legit.  there wasn't a complete rainbows-and-sunflower ending (although she did snag that boyfriend), but the struggle wasn't forgotten, instead being stated that she was going to slip and it was going to be hard -- but she would be able to learn to cope.] 

so all in all, am i glad i read it?  definitely.  but was there anything in the entire story i expected?  only the boyfriend.  

so be careful, kids.  don't judge a book by its cover (or its title for that matter).  but if you do, like i did, read it with an open mind.  and try your hardest to find the good.