It's no joke that life is rough for teenage girls, including girls like Haylah Swinton, the heroine of Rebecca Elliott's Pretty Funny for a Girl. She's fat and her classmates call her "Pig", her mom has just started dating a guy who doesn't wear socks with his shoes, and she can't seem to ever wake up on time.
Then things start to change when the most popular kid in her school, who also happens to be an aspiring comedian, asks Haylah to help him write his next stand-up routine.
I'm sure you can guess where things go, but it was fun (and funny) watching Haylah take others' needs into account and discover some remarkable things about herself, namely that she doesn't need to change who she is in order to impress a boy.
This book reminded me of Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, so adult readers who remember that novel will appreciate this one, too. But there's a lot for teenage readers, especially girls, to relate to in this novel, and I like that it offers positive messages about self-image, friendships, family relationships, and personal responsibility.
Pretty Funny for a Girl is published by Peachtree Publishing and is on bookstore shelves now. I received a free ARC through a BookExpo giveaway.
Comments
Post a Comment