Salter, Sydney. My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. April 2009. ISBN: 978-0-15-206643-7. Gr 7-11.
-- School Library Journal, 4/15/2009
The cover did tempt me a bit; it's not every day you see a book with a Barbie™ doll's face for the cover. What amazed me is that someone can go on and on for over 100 pages on how they hate their nose.
I thought it would get better, but it really didn't improve. Jory, the main character, spent the majority of time complaining about her nose, using it as an excuse for why boys didn't like her, when the real reason was she didn't have any confidence in herself.
The one thing that really bugged me was that Tyler, the guy that Jory liked, ended up being gay—a plot line that has been used so many times before. I expected a more creative reason for why she didn't like Tory anymore. Also, the nose thing: no one is that fixated on a single feature. Yes, girls may obsess sometimes, but never that much. It felt really unrealistic and fake. The other characters were really great. I just think the plot line needs to be tweaked so that the average teenage girl can relate to it more—otherwise they might think they need to become self-absorbed like Jory.—Sabrina K., age 15
This review is from a member of the Teens Know "Best" YA Galley Group of the St. Paul Public Library and the Metropolitan State University Library and Learning Center (MN), a part of YALSA's Young Adult Galley/Teen Top Ten Project which uses 15 public libraries and school library media centers from across the country to provide feedback to publishers of young adult books.
