The Truth About Us

Gr 9 Up—Jess feels like nobody "gets" her. Yes, she may be pretty, and she may have a lot of money, and she may be friends with the most popular girl in school, but what Jess needs are real friends who understand her. Jess has a lot of things going on in her life, and she has not chosen the best methods for coping recently. After an incident with her supposed friend Nance, Jess's father decides she needs to be reprimanded. Her punishment is to volunteer at the local shelter while the rest of her posse spends the summer soaking up the sun. New Beginnings turns out be just what Jess needed. She not only finds herself but also finds the real friends she has been searching for and even a romance. Flynn comes from a different economic class, and as the couple learns to overcome the challenges that are brought about by the gap in their relative statuses, Jess becomes a more developed and well-rounded character. Other subplots, such as her family recovering from an accident, add depth. This title will pair well with Simon Elkeles's Perfect Chemistry (Walker, 2008), another story dealing with building strong emotional relationships with people who come from vastly different backgrounds.