How to Rock Braces and Glasses by Meg Haston

Title: How to Rock Braces and Glasses
Author: Meg Haston
ISBN: 9780316130295
Publisher: Poppy/ Little, Brown and Company
Released: September 2011
Page #: 294 (subject to change in final version)
Source: ARC from the publisher @ BEA

Summary:
"Gorgeous, uber-harsh, and uber-stylish, Kacey Simon is the undisputed social dictator of Marquette Middle School. That is, until an eye infection and a visit to the dentist leave her with Coke-bottle glasses, and a mouth full of metal, and... a littthsp! Dissed and dismissed by her popular friends, Kacey is forced to hang out with a boy who wears skinny jeans and jams in his own band. But as she adjusts to life as a loser, she's surprised to find that Skinny Jeans is kind of hot, and his band is pretty cool. Suddenly, hitting rock bottom feels oddly uplifting. Could rocking braces and glasses be the best thing to ever happen to her?

In this hilarious reversal of the cool crowd versus the nerd herd, a popular girl finds herself in Loserville and realizes it's about time she paid back all the bad karma she built up as Queen Bee."
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First Lines: (subject to change in final version)

"Real journalists are born with a sixth sense. It's our most reliable source; an inner voice that tips us off when there's more to a story than meets the eye. My sixth sense has never been wrong, which is probably why I'm the first broadcast journalist in Marquette Middle School history to have her own weekly segment."
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Review:

Let me just start off by apologizing for the quality of the image above. Had a hard time finding a picture of the cover, so this image is from my own sad little scanner and my used and abused copy of the ARC. I have heard that the official cover is being released soon... so I promise to give y'all that as soon as I have it. Excited!

This is a story about a girl in middle school who has tons of changes thrown at her in a short amount of time. It's all about how she deals with it and what changes come because of them. Hm. That was sort of abstract sounding... let's try this: Most Popular Girl gets glasses and braces. Friends dump her. She realizes what her life has been like and starts to make changes.

I'm just gonna say this... I always wanted the popular girls in school to be hit with stuff like this. Though, I also wished for them to get fat. Ahem. Too bad none of it ever happened. Confession over. Middle school is totally that time when everyone starts changing in different ways and friend groups get shifted around. At least that was my experience. And this story tells about one group that goes through a huge change - their queen bee has been taken out.

The whole thing kicks off with a faulty pair of purple contacts - which I love. I had my own pair of faulty purple contacts when I was in middle school. While Kacey's problem is with the eye drops... mine was that one eye was allergic to them. Go figure. But it's totally realistic like that and you can completely imagine every bit of it.

Okay, so I loved this book. I think anyone who is going through the middle school trauma or ever had either braces or glasses will very much relate. I know I did. There's also a really great theme of figuring out who you are. Kacey starts out as this outgoing, speaking her mind, popular girl. Once she has a new outlook on life, she starts to realize how she has been to people - and people finally tell her how she's been acting. It begins a whole new personality check for her. Kacey is a journalist and uses that as a shield throughout the book for making snarky remarks about people. She starts to realize that there is a fine line between honesty and kindness.

I honestly thing tons of girls will love this book. I will definitely be recommending it along. There's plenty of humor and some romance to get you into the story. I loved how realistic the situations were and how things were resolved. The author did give me a little insight about the ending. The final book is going to have a couple of chapters added to the end - which I think might give a little more depth to the ending. I'm excited to read those chapters, for sure.

I've seen lots about a tv show coming out with this title. I'm hoping for good things. We'll see. I believe this is also a debut author and I am looking forward to reading more from her in the future! Until then, check out her blog/website for more info.
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Other Blog Reviews:

YA Book Divas
Okay, so it's a brand new book... but people need to make sure they get it. So fun!