Vintage Veronica

March 1, 2010
Veronica may be overweight, but she's got enviable fashion sense and style. She works at the Clothing Bonanza—a giant vintage clothing warehouse where her talent as a guide to all things old school, funky, and valuable turns a profit—which provides a wonderfully fun backdrop for Perl's (Chicken Butt!
) first YA novel. Veronica can't stop stuffing down doughnuts and regretting the same, but although the 15-year-old has been something of a outcast (“if you ARE a fat girl, you're not really risking much socially to become The Fat Girl Who Dresses Weird”), she finds herself gaining friends at work, including the weird yet strangely appealing Lenny, one of the many quirky staffers. As romance blossoms, Veronica navigates new feelings of insecurity, juggles multiple friendships, and considers whether or not she might be beautiful after all. Though Veronica has many self-esteem issues on which she regularly comments, the sense of humor running throughout her narration rarely allows the story to fall into woe-is-me territory. Readers may want to scour local vintage haunts after finishing this one—and wish they could bring Veronica along. Ages 12–up.

February 1, 2010
Gr 9 Up-Veronica plans to spend summer vacation working alone in the employees-only consignment section of Clothing Bonanza and drinking mocha smoothies from the donut shop next door. She's content spending her time avoiding people and ogling the fabulous vintage garments that she's separated from the heaps of ratty clothing. Veronica has successfully avoided making friends for a couple of years since a supposed friend teased her about her larger-than-average appetite. So when two pushy and charismatic coworkers begin to notice her, Veronica is not sure how to handle it. While following the girls' plan to spy on the stock boy, Len, Veronica finds herself having a summer she never expected. He introduces her to romance, reptiles, and, unfortunately, regret. "Vintage Veronica" provides a realistic snapshot of teen dating, dotted with descriptions of some adorable-sounding outfits and filled with well-rounded characters from a variety of subcultures. The protagonist is a self-described "fat girl" who is not obsessed with losing weighta much-needed character in young adult fiction. An enjoyable read filled with quirky characters."Emily Chornomaz, Brooklyn Public Library, NY"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2010
Grades 9-12 Almost 16, Veronica has lied about her age to get a job at the largest used-clothing store in the Northeast (The Original Dollar-a-Pound!). Veronica separates the wheat from the chaff, marking the true vintage for the Real Deal floor. Despite her weight, Veronica has an eye for fashion, which manifests itself in crinolines and bowling shirts (together) and sketching. She catches the eye of several of her coworkers, including mean girls Zoe and Ginger and a thin, twitchy guy she thinks of as the Nail. In her first novel, Perl masterfully sets her scene. The store, with its giant chute dumping clothes into the pile for the customers (aka the pickers), is almost a character in itself. But the author is also quite adept at writing people, especially the reptile-loving Nail, whose rejections and longings match Veronicas. With her pigtails, bulk, and hybrid outfits, its hard to envision Veronica as the fashion icon others admire. But her story is filled with emotions (and language!) that are both earthy and real, and a romance thats as complicated as it is sweet.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2010
Having spent more time collecting vintage clothing than making friends, fifteen-year-old "fat girl" Veronica has never been part of the in-crowd. Working at a consignment shop, she befriends two intimidating girls and quirky Lenny, the butt of their mean jokes. Veronica's difficulty in choosing between nice, quirky Lenny and the mean girls is believably conveyed.

(Copyright 2010 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)