The Fashion Committee

by Susan Juby

"The Fashion Committee is another winner by one of my all time favorite authors."--Meg Cabot, New York Times bestselling author of the The Princess Diaries and Mediator series

Charlie Dean is a style-obsessed girl who eats, sleeps, and breathes fashion. John Thomas-Smith is a boy who forges metal sculptures in his garage and couldn’t care less about clothes. Both are gunning for a scholarship to the private art high school that could make all their dreams come true. Whoever wins the fashion competition will win the scholarship—and only one can win.

Told in the alternating voices of Charlie’s and John’s journals, this hilarious and poignant YA novel perfectly captures what it’s like to have an artistic drive so fierce that nothing—not your dad’s girlfriend’s drug-addicted ex-boyfriend, a soul-crushing job at Salad Stop, or being charged with a teensy bit of kidnapping—can stand in your way.

With black and white art custom-created by fashion and beauty illustrator Soleil Ignacio, the book is a collector’s item, perfect for anyone with a passion for fashion.

• ISBN10: 0451468783
• ISBN13: 9780451468789
• Publish Date: 23 May 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 18 September 2020
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Viking Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[wcs53]

I received this book from LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

It took me a little while to get into this story about two teenagers who have entered a fashion contest to try and win a scholarship to a prestigious private art school. For one of the teenagers, Charlie Dean, the contest is a godsend, as she lives and breathes fashion. For the other one, John Thomas Smith, it is a nightmare. He'd rather be working in metalwork, but he really wants to get into that school, so he enters anyway.

The book was written in the style of journal entries, written by the two teenagers as part of the contest. It started off quite innocuously, and seemed to be heading into the realm of the usual kind of YA book of this type. However, as the story progressed, more was revealed about the two main characters and what they had to overcome. One lived in the shadow of addiction, as she had lost her mother to an overdose, with her father trying to keep clean; the other was being raised by his grandparents, as his mom was on the road most of the time and his father was absent. As theirs tries unraveled, it became obvious as to why they both wanted to win the scholarship.

The ending wasn't as predictable as I thought it was going to be, which was a pleasant surprise. As well as the main characters, there were a lot of interesting, well-written, side-characters. On the whole, it was a very enjoyable read and I'd recommend it for anyone looking for a Canadian YA book with a difference.