Ginger Rue

"I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Really cool people and nerds have one thing in common: they're different from everyone else. They're weird. The thing is, though, nerds are ashamed of being weird, while cool people celebrate it."
--From Brand-New Emily by Ginger Rue

A super-cool teen book about identity, self-confidence, old-fashioned values, and cutting-edge publicity.

Brand-New Emily teaches the basics of public relations, sales, and marketing and applies those skills to a popularity contest at a local middle school.

In a time of social media and network marketing and shopping local, this book sweeps into the teen marketplace and shows them how to use those exact same skills to reposition their status in society while remaining true to themselves.… (mehr)

I originally picked this book up because the banter between the main character and her therapist was too good to pass up. But as the story went on, I started immediately finding problems with the personification of the supporting characters, who were displayed the following ways:

Fat characters are only valid if they're dieting.

"Emo" characters are only valid if they're self-harming.

Non-white characters are only valid if they originally come from an entirely different country and therefore have a hard time fitting in.

Plain characters are only valid if they act as if they are the reincarnation of Jesus 24/7.

I know that the entire point of this book was for the main character, who was so flat and uninteresting that I've already forgotten her name, to learn empathy, and other characters had to suffer for the lesson to really stick. But I'm really sick of the trope in YA novels - and, hell, the belief in real life - that we should sympathize with people solely because they go through troubles that we will never know about. I mean, yeah, a lot of people do, but that really shouldn't be our main motivation for playing nice with others. How about we do it because being nice is the right thing to do, regardless of the person's situation? Maybe that heavy girl isn't stringently recording her diet down to the calorie (or even on a diet!), but that doesn't make it automatically okay to tear her down regardless. Maybe dyeing your hair black shouldn't be enough to make you recoil in disgust at a person, regardless of whatever mental battles they might be fighting. And Jesus Christ almighty, making racist remarks at a person isn't better or worse if said person originally comes from another country. It's still racist! This message could have totally been worked in if the main character traded bodies with a "normal" person, especially since it's such an important one to learn. But no, we get to read two hundred pages worth of the Suffering Olympics. Disappointing.


… (mehr)

Written for the grade 7-9 crowd, Brand New Emily is an adorable, quirky, and well thought out book about being popular, treating others with respect, and learning how to stand up for yourself. When picked-on 8th grader Emily overhears a major secret about a famous pop star, Emily realizes she can use the secret to her advantage: She 'hires' the star's publicist to help her stop getting made fun of at school.

The idea is to create a new 'brand' out of Emily, making her into someone that other people want to be around, offering something different from the popular girls at school. The story is packed with laughs and drama without being unbelievable, and the teens act realistically without going over the top. The main message of the book is that a public image doesn't make you a good person, or the right kind of person, or even a nice person -- it's about being yourself and respecting others.

Great message, fun story. I'd recommend it to 11-15 year olds without hesitation.… (mehr)