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Summary
Summary
What if you lost the thing that made you who you are?
Lexi has always been stunning. Her butter-colored hair and perfect features have helped her attract friends, a boyfriend, and the attention of a modeling scout. But everything changes the night Lexi's face goes through a windshield. Now she's not sure what's worse: the scars she'll have to live with forever, or what she saw going on between her best friend and her boyfriend right before the accident. With the help of her trombone-playing, defiantly uncool older sister and a guy at school recovering from his own recent trauma, Lexi learns she's much more than just a pretty face.
Author Notes
Natasha Friend was born to an English professor father and a poet/actress mother. She was raised in a house without a television. At the time, she thought this was the worst form of child abuse. Now, she understands the method to her parents' madness: they wanted her to be a reader. Spending most of her childhood at the Hamilton Public Library, Natasha found her mecca, the young-adult section, and her hero, Judy Blume. She, too, wanted to write stories about girls who felt alone. Girls whose parents were screw-ups. Girls with spunk and spirit and resolve.
Natasha began dictating stories to her father, who typed them up on his 1930's Remington typewriter. Most involved rainbows, unicorns, and poor orphan girls discovering treasure. She knew she was supposed to be a writer in seventh grade, when a sweet boy gave her a love poem and she felt compelled to correct it for syntax and rhyme scheme. Today, Natasha is the award-winning author of Perfect , Lush , Bounce , For Keeps , and My Life in Black and White . When she isn't writing, she is building forts and making chocolate-chip pancakes. Natasha lives on the Connecticut shoreline with her husband, three children, and dog, Beckett.
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lexi has always been known for her good looks. After finding her boyfriend, Ryan, cheating on her with her best friend at a party, Lexi gets into a car accident and requires reconstructive facial surgery. Devastated by the skin graft and scars, she hides out at home, refusing contact with her former friends and resenting her overbearing, image-conscious mother. When Lexi's 10th-grade year begins, she takes the advice of her down-to-earth sister, Ruthie, and tries out a new persona, getting a funky haircut, wearing Ruthie's unflattering clothes, and adopting new rules for life that include not worrying about appearances and food, forgetting guys, boycotting school functions, becoming more "globally aware," and thinking for herself. Lexi's journey is rewarding and powerful as she comes to see herself, her family, and her friends in ways she never did before. Friend's (For Keeps) character-driven novel is an affecting and insightful portrait of recovery and the experiences that shape an individual. Lexi's intimate narrative voice puts readers in her shoes as she reshapes her life and her relationships. Ages 12-up. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Others have defined Lexi as beautiful. Now it's how she defines herself. So when her face goes through a windshield on the same night that her best friend betrays her, Lexi wonders who she is and, ultimately, who she wants to be. Lexi's voice is spot on and her transformation is satisfying (if tidy) in this well-crafted exploration of family, friendship, and self. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
Lexi has always been beautiful, a fact she takes for granted. Life is good until she goes through the windshield of her BFF's brother's car. Now a skin graft from her butt graces her cheek, she is no longer speaking to her best friend or her boyfriend, and her older sister is advising her to gain some perspective. And perspective it will be for both Lexi and the reader, for amid the dark humor and crises du jour, Friend poses real-world, if subtle, questions. What role does physical appearance play in relationships? Who are your friends and what actions constitute the line of demarcation between friend and foe? Can we unconsciously, unthinkingly bully? How can you like yourself in spite of your appearance? This novel is about family, friends, love, and above all, the hard journey to self-acceptance. It's a journey that readers will take with Lexi, empathizing through laughter and tears as she is pulled kicking and whining into a life beyond just her pretty face.--Bradburn, Frances Copyright 2010 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-"My life is over." Or at least that's what 15-year-old Lexi thinks when she wakes up in a hospital with her face bandaged. When she finally looks in a mirror, instead of her once-stunning reflection, she sees zigzagged stitches, a skin graft, bruising, and swelling. Before her accident, Lexi had ruled the school with her friend Taylor and her hot boyfriend, Ryan, but everything changes when Taylor hooks up with Ryan at a party, setting off a chain of events that leaves Lexi in a car crash. She is about to find out that she's more than just a pretty face as she slowly develops the confidence to make new friends and try new things while also learning to forgive. The teen's journey toward recognizing that things aren't always black and white-that more often than not life is a lot of gray-is riveting. Readers will be engrossed in her story as she struggles to adapt to her new identity, learns to accept that a senior photojournalist, Theo, is romantically interested in her, and comes to understand that her mom has actually been listening to her more than she thought. The relationship that Lexi develops with her dorky older sister, who offers practical guidance and much-needed perspective, is the highlight of this story. It's frustrating that the unwanted sexual advances that led to Lexi's car crash go unaddressed, but readers who enjoy satisfying character transformations, such as in Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall (HarperCollins, 2010), will be rapidly flipping the pages of Friend's well-written and thoughtful novel.-Rachael Myers-Ricker, Horace Mann School, Bronx, NY (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
After a car accident leaves Lexi's face terribly scarred, she is forced to figure out what is truly important in life. Lexi is the beautiful one. Her best friend, Taylor, is the wild and funny one. Together they are an unstoppable force. Everything seems perfect until one summer night when it all falls apart. After finding her boyfriend, Ryan, and Taylor making out at a party, Lexi wants nothing more than to escape. She begs a ride from Taylor's brother, Jarrod, who takes the opportunity to hit on her. An argument quickly escalates, leading to an accident that changes Lexi's life forever. Angry and bitter, Lexi pushes everyone away from her. It isn't until her sister, Ruthie, and Theo, a guy with no patience for Lexi's self-pity, are honest with her that Lexi starts peeling away the plastic life she once had and discovers the real one underneath. Authentic dialogue, complex characters and an interesting narration lift this story above others with a similar theme. Even when she's behaving erratically, Lexi's sarcastic wit and genuine emotion make her a girl readers will root for. These characters drink, are sexually active and swear, making them instantly recognizable to older teens. Artful and satisfying. (Fiction. 14 up)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
