by Lisa Greenwald
ages: 10+
First sentence: “Things can always be worse.”

This looks like a very girly book. Pink background, face mask (or is it masque?), cucumber slices: you think it’s going to be frills and parties and giggles.

Except, it’s not.

Sure, Lucy Desberg loves makeup, and wants to be the next Laura Mercier (who, thanks to Google, I found out is a real person), but she’s no girly girl. She’s a smart 12-year-old who loves to help out at her family’s pharmacy — which is slowly failing due to a myriad of factors — and who becomes interested in going green. Sure, there’s seventh grade stuff: her best friend develops a crush on a boy and gets all weird about it, but really it’s about Lucy’s business sense and the fact that kids can Do Things To.

If only the stupid grownups will stop shouting at each other and listen to her.

It’s a cute enough plot, and Lucy and her friends are a likable enough characters (the book falls into the “parents are idiots” trap, which was distracting). Combining saving a business and saving the earth with makeup and beauty tips is a unique idea, though it kind of screamed: “Hey girls! You can be environmentally aware AND cute at the same time! See how easy it is?!” Overlying message: you CAN be smart, aware, AND be into makeup. They are not mutually exclusive. Which, I suppose, is a halfway decent message.

However, one does have to wonder how good a book really is if the favorite thing, when all is said and done, are the beauty and business tips at the beginning of each chapter. Those, I really liked (found myself wanting to write a couple down; what does this say about me?). Even though there wasn’t anything that really grabbed me about the book, it was a good debut novel. And I’m sure there are smart girls out there who are just dying to know that its okay to like makeup. (And vice versa.)

Okay, then. Off to paint my toenails.