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Awkward
Marni Bates

Kensington Teen
December 27 2011 / ISBN: 9780758269379
Contemporary - Young Adult
Amazon

Reviewed by Jan Fields

MacKenzie is perfectly happy being invisible. She has good friends, a job as a tutor, and her studies to keep her busy. She just wants to get through the day without catching nasty notice from Chelsea, queen of the Notables, or embarrassing herself too much. Unfortunately, that's just a bit too much. When an embarrassing incident is captured on tape and posted on YouTube, MacKenzie finds herself turned into a reluctant YouTube sensation. And everything in her life changes.

Marnie Bates does an wonderful job with MacKenzie's good girl voice. She feels completely natural and real. And though the story deals with clear teen experiences (including first teen party with drinking), the author handles it with amazing restraint. This isn't one of *those* books, the ones that make people shake their heads and wonder what teen books are coming to. Instead, this is a charming, funny, lively book with characters a reader can fall in love with. What more could you want from a novel?

Reviewer Jan Fields is the editor of Kid Magazine Writers emagazine and has written dozens of stories and articles for the children's magazine market.
Reviewed 2012
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