Perfect Girl

by Mary Hogan

Overview

Out of the blue, Ruthie has fallen in love with the boy next door, Perry. He's suddenly grown up and made her heart go thwang, and Ruthie has no idea what to do about it.

Then a new girl shows up at school, and Ruthie realizes she has to do something, and fast. Jenna is perfect, from her perfectly straight hair to her perfectly manicured toes. Perry's noticed her, too, and worse, Jenna has noticed him right back. Ruthie knows she has to call her aunt, New York's "Goddess of Love." If Aunt Marty, romance columnist and woman of the world, can't turn Ruthie into a perfect girl, no one can . . . but she might also turn Ruthie's entire world upside down.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061897610
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	03/31/2009
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	1 MB
Age Range:	13 Years

About the Author

Mary Hogan grew up near the beaches of Southern California (Bikinis! Aargh!), but currently lives in New York City with her husband, Bob, and their dog, Axel. She is the author of Perfect Girl, The Serious Kiss, Susanna Sees Stars, and Susanna Hits Hollywood.

Read an Excerpt

Perfect Girl

Chapter One

She walks into class ten minutes after the bell. Twenty heads turn. Forty eyes watch her walk up to the front with her perfectly tan legs, perfectly blue halter top, and perfectly sweeping bangs.

Mr. Roland is already boring us. Chalk dust flying, he lists the six member councils of the United Nations on the board. His short-sleeve white shirt is so thin you can see the shadow of his back hair.

" . . . General Assembly, Security Council . . . ," his nasal voice drones on.

"I'd like to member her council," one of the guys says, flicking his head at the new girl. The class erupts in laughter. Well, the boys, anyway.

"Oh my," Mr. Roland says, turning around. "Who do we have here?"

She hands him a note. I stare and twirl a strand of red hair around my finger.

"Take a seat," our teacher says. And the new girl does. She calmly walks to the back of the room without blushing though everyone is watching her every move. Especially Perry. My Perry.

"This is Jenna Wilson, everyone," says Mr. Roland. The boys nod and smirk. The girls bend their lips up in fake smiles. Jenna sits and faces front. I notice she has a French manicure on her fingers and her toes. Curling my ragged nails into my palms, I face front, too.

" . . . Economic and Social Council, International Court of Justice . . . "

Mr. Roland returns to the chalkboard and blathers on. The way he has all semester. I hear with my ears, but my mind is on the new girl. The perfect girl, who now sits between me and Perry Gould. I feel him checking her out. My heart sinks.

Of all times, whynow?

Perfect Girl. Copyright (c) by Mary Hogan . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 6-9
This story walks the line between being funny and serious, and not always successfully. Fourteen-year-old Ruthie lives in tiny Odessa, DE, with her neurotic single mother. When she was 11, they visited her wealthy aunt in New York City but left after one night and Ruthie was forbidden to contact her again. Three years later, a new girl, whom she calls the Perfect Girl, attracts her friend Perry's attention just as Ruthie realizes that she is interested in him. The teen calls her aunt for advice, and she decides to come and help. She learns that Aunt Marty's husband left her for another woman and that she needed to get away. After she admits this to her sister, their relationship begins to thaw, and readers learn the reason for the grudge. Both adults' actions seem over-the-top. Thankfully, other than buying silk underwear at Victoria's Secret and getting endless pedicures, Aunt Marty's advice is mostly solid. Ruthie takes Perry, an astrology buff, to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. But, even though they have a terrific time and he calls Ruthie "a perfect girl," there's no when they kiss. It's a letdown after she has spent most of the book pining for him. In the end, while giving her eulogy at their elderly tenant's funeral, Ruthie realizes that it's the little details that define a relationship and that perfection is irrelevant. Aunt Marty moves out, but she's become part of Ruthie's life-and her mom's-for good.
—Tina ZubakCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Cosmopolitan aunt to the rescue! Fourteen-year-old Ruthie feels stifled by her tiny Delaware town, her frumpy and overprotective mother and the fact that her father was an unknown sperm donor. When she falls head-over-heels in love with lifelong friend Perry, she knows mom can't help. In secret, hardly breathing, she telephones glamorous Aunt Marty, mom's estranged sister who writes magazine love columns and is an official expert on men. Ruthie being smitten with rich Aunt Marty is at least as important as the tumultuous relationship between the adult sisters and Ruthie's pursuit of Perry. Hogan excels at young tenderness, such as Perry spooning Ruthie's foot, and an enchanted day they spend together in D.C. Mom gets a bum rap (caricatured confusingly as both a dowdy '50s throwback and an intentional single mom) while heroine Marty's high heels, manicures and diet examples (appetizer portions only) far outshine any depth that Hogan attempts. Fun, especially for readers who thrill at secret tips like "[a]lways wear silk underpants." (Fiction. 11-13)

Kirkus Reviews