Sixteen-year-old Renley needs three thousand dollars for the math club's trip to New York City, and she knows exactly how to get it: she's going to start a how-to blog where people pay for answers to all of life's questions from a “certified expert." The only problems: 1) She doesn't know how to do anything but long division and calculus. 2) She's totally invisible to people at school. And not in a cool Gossip Girl kind of way.
So, she decides to learn to do . . . well . . . everything. When her anonymous blog shifts in a more scandalous direction and the questions (and money) start rolling in, she has to learn not just how to do waterfall braids and cat-eye makeup, but a few other things, like how to cure a hangover, how to flirt, and how to make out (something her very experienced, and very in-love-with-her neighbor, Drew, is more than willing to help with).
As her blog's reputation skyrockets, so does “new and improved" Renley's popularity. She's not only nabbed the attention of the entire school, but also the eye of Seth Levine, the hot culinary wizard she's admired from across the home-ec classroom all year.
Soon, caught up in the thrill of popularity both in and out of cyberspace, her secrets start to spiral, and she finds that she's forgotten the most important how-to: how to be herself. When her online and real lives converge, Renley will have to make a choice: lose everything she loves in her new life, or everyone she loves in the life she left behind.
Sky Pony Press, with our Good Books, Racehorse and Arcade imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of books for young readers—picture books for small children, chapter books, books for middle grade readers, and novels for young adults. Our list includes bestsellers for children who love to play Minecraft; stories told with LEGO bricks; books that teach lessons about tolerance, patience, and the environment, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
January 5, 2019 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781510701687
- File size: 745 KB
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781510701687
- File size: 743 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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July 15, 2016
To make money, Renley will discover who she truly is.For the self-centered Renley, the math-club trip to New York City isn't just a trip with her friend April--it will let her reconnect with the mother who abandoned her after her father's affair. But Renley doesn't have the money for the trip, until she gets the idea to start an advice blog and charge readers for her responses. But to get the big money, she has to answer questions like how to make out, how to recover from a hangover, and more. Helping her is her friend Drew, "who can't keep it in his pants." He says he loves her, but Renley selfishly refuses to believe him even as she uses him--because she won't take the risk of losing him as a friend. Muddying the waters is Seth, the cooking savant Renley is crushing on. Renley starts dating Seth and becomes part of the popular crowd--but as she changes, she loses not just April and Drew, but herself, too. Renley is less a well-rounded character and more a collection of abrasive flaws that provoke little sympathy in readers. While she becomes slightly more likable by the end of the novel, it's uncertain if readers would put up with Renley until that point. Renley, April, Drew, and Seth all appear to be white. An unlikable character in a predictable romantic predicament makes for a miss. (Fiction. 14-18)COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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October 1, 2016
Gr 9 Up-This laugh-out-loud coming-of- age novel engages readers immediately and never lets go. Renley's best friend April and her neighbor Drew provide the protagonist with support as she decides to run a paid blog to raise money for a math club trip to New York. As Renley survives cooking class (she prefers classrooms she cannot set on fire and would rather be solving for x), she comes up with answers to common questions she finds on Google. Soon her anonymous blog is a bigger hit than she ever imagined, but there are some questions she finds that she will never answer. How far will she go to uncover answers to some of the other questions? This book distinguishes itself with peripheral characters who are also well-developed and support Renley and the fast-paced plot. Shrum addresses many bildungsroman issues throughout the narrative in a believable and interesting way and still manages to pull off a thought-provoking story that will let young adults understand and relate to Renley's many crises and how she comes to handle them. VERDICT Readers of Carrie Jones's Tips on Having a Gay (Ex) Boyfriend will love this.-Cathleen Ash, Manor High School, TX
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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