LoveReading4Kids Says
Shortlisted for the prestigious Teenage Book Prize 2010.
This novel will really hit an emotional nerve with teen girls in particular. 17 years old but with a mum who is over protective and dad she never knew, Bea is craving independence and when she gets her moment she takes it. First to Spain and then to Paris where her father apparently lives but not before she meets the gorgeous Toph. Her life will never be the same again particularly when she has to go back and confront her mother in London. A terrific read.
The Teenage Book Prize 2010 shortlist:
Halo - Zizou Corder
Nobody's Girl - Sarra Manning
The Enemy - Charlie Higson
Revolver - Marcus Sedgwick
Out of Shadows - Jason Wallace
Unhooking the Moon - Gregory Hughes
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Nobody's Girl Synopsis
Bea thinks she's the most boring seventeen-year-old in the world. She's not pretty or popular or funny, unlike her mother who had Bea when she was 17. The only glamorous thing about Bea is the French father who left before she was born and lives in Paris. She yearns for la vie Parisienne every moment of her dull existence. So when Ruby Davies, the leader of her school's most elite clique picks Bea as her new best friend and asks her to go on holiday with them, she's wary but delighted. If nothing else it's two weeks away from her over-protective mother. But when the gang arrive in Spain, Bea is crushed to realise that Ruby and her posse have simply been using her. Bea wreaks vengeance on her so-called friends, and plans to decamp to Paris to find her father. But when she falls asleep on the train and wakes up in Bilbao, she meets a group of American students who are backpacking around Europe and bonds with them straight away, especially the gorgeous Toph. Though Bea has a shock in store when they finally get to Paris. The 'City of Lovers' really works it magic on Bea and Toph who spend a week wandering the sun-dappled streets of Paris, talking, holding hands and falling in love. When it comes time to go home to confront her Mum about her mysterious father, the new version of Bea is determined that she'll never go back to her old, boring way of life - she's no longer Nobody's Girl; she belongs to herself and to Toph... But with an ocean between them, will he wait for her?
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780340883730 |
| Publication date: |
4th February 2010 |
| Author: |
Sarra Manning |
| Publisher: |
Hodder Children's Books an imprint of Hachette Children's Books |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
370 pages |
| Suitable For: |
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About Sarra Manning
Sarra Manning is a teen queen extraordinaire. She spent five years working on the legendary but now sadly defunct UK teen mag, J17, first as a writer and then as Entertainment Editor. She then joined the launch team and became editor of teen fashion bible Ellegirl UK. There followed a stint as editor of the BBC's What To Wear and consulting on Bliss, The Face and More. Sarra now writes for ELLE, Grazia, Red, InStyle, The Guardian, The Mail On Sunday's You magazine and The Sunday Telegraph's Stella. Her best-selling teen novels, which include Guitar Girl, Let's Get Lost and The Diary Of A Crush trilogy, have been translated into numerous languages and in 2008, she was shortlisted for the Book People's Queen of Teen award. In 2009, her first adult novel, Unsticky, was published. Sarra lives in North London.
A Q&A with the author
Are any of your characters based on real people?
There’s always an element of me in my heroines. Not necessarily the teenager
I was, but the teenager who I wanted to be that got to date tousle-haired art boys, always had a snappy comeback and knew how to source really good vintage dresses.
Did you always want to be a writer?
Always, always, always. Never even contemplated being anything else!
What was your favourite book as a teenager?
I was a sullen, pretentious teenager rarely seen without a copy of Sylvia Plath’s
The Bell Jar or Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
If you got in Doctor Who’s tardis, where (or when) would you go?
Hmm, maybe Paris in the 1920s. Or maybe even to go back to my teenage years but knowing what I know now. That would be the ultimate do-over.
Author Image : Brian Daly
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