Krause deftly handles the oft-belittled personal and political power of clothing, and fans of couture and fabulous fashion will enjoy the extravagant clothing and glamorous world that Emmy is determined to enter.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Krause deftly handles the oft-belittled personal and political power of clothing, and fans of couture and fabulous fashion will enjoy the extravagant clothing and glamorous world that Emmy is determined to enter.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Set in an alternate Victorian London–like past, this blends competition and cooperation for compelling drama. A unique debut with plenty of flair.
Krause deftly handles the oft-belittled personal and political power of clothing, and fans of couture and fabulous fashion will enjoy the extravagant clothing and glamorous world that Emmy is determined to enter.
Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Set in an alternate Victorian London–like past, this blends competition and cooperation for compelling drama. A unique debut with plenty of flair.” — Booklist
“Krause deftly handles the oft-belittled personal and political power of clothing, and fans of couture and fabulous fashion will enjoy the extravagant clothing and glamorous world that Emmy is determined to enter.” — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
“No one expects Emmaline, a girl from the country, will have anything to offer. Forced to adapt to a ruthless environment, Emmaline will surprise them — and surprise herself, too. If you binge Project Runway and gobble down YA dystopias, then A Dress For the Wicked is for you.” — Refinery 29
No one expects Emmaline, a girl from the country, will have anything to offer. Forced to adapt to a ruthless environment, Emmaline will surprise them — and surprise herself, too. If you binge Project Runway and gobble down YA dystopias, then A Dress For the Wicked is for you.
07/19/2019
Gr 7 Up -Emmy Watkins grew up in the country town of Shy, Avon-upon-Kent, where she and her mother run a pub. Emmy loves the beauty and quietness of her life in Shy, but yearns for more. She's a fashion designer, and dreams of joining the prestigious Fashion House in the city. Madame Jolène, Europe's fashion muse, runs the house and designs for the Crown. Every year the Fashion House invites five worthy contestants to participate in an Interview; they live at the Fashion House and participate in three challenges. Whoever wins may be invited to work at the Fashion House. Emmy never would have been chosen, but the Reformists Party is pressuring Madame Jolène to have a participant from the country, in order to push their agenda. Emmy faces adversity from her arrival a—she does not receive the welcome letter her roommate Sophie got, and Tilda, the maid assigned to Emmy, does not wake her up for her first day. Emmy will not give up—she loves to design, it is where she feels most like herself, her sketches spring from her heart. Readers will root for Emmy to overcome the difficulties put in her way, and help move Avon-upon-Kent to a more inclusive place for blooming fashion designers. VERDICT A beautiful debut, recommended for school and library collections where Kiera Cass's Selection series is well liked. -Gretchen Schulz, Schaumburg Township District Library, IL
2019-05-06Project Runway complete with absurd competitions and bonus instalove.
In Britannia Secunda, fashion is everything: The country's livelihood depends on the farmers who produce the raw materials, the factories that create the fabric, and the designers from the Fashion House. Fashion is also a bone of contention between the crown and the Reformists Party, whose members think it has become too elitist. Country girl Emmy Watkins, whose semidisgraced single mother runs a pub, is a born designer who loves fashion, so when it is announced that the Fashion House Interview will be open to a contestant from a rural area, she is determined to try out. The worldbuilding ranges from sloppy (cashmere from sheep?) to contrived (in a fashion-obsessed kingdom with a steady stream of accomplished designers churned out of the interviews, no other design houses exist, and Emmy is the first person to truly innovate). The girls competing in the interview lack substance (Ky is half Japanese and half white, making her stand out in this very white world; Alice is rich and mean; Kitty is rich and kind; Cordelia is unusual for wearing trousers) while Emmy is pure trope (plucky, innately talented, sharp enough to see that fashion is corrupt) and falls for the first pretty boy she meets. Props for lots of ridiculous fashion that seems insane enough to be couture, but that's about all that works.
A high-concept debut that needs much tighter stitching. (Fantasy. 12-16)
