The Pretty One

by Cheryl Klam

Book Overview

All Megan Fletcher had wanted was to be like her sister Lucy: a beautiful, thin girl whom everyone at the Chesapeake School for Performing Arts worshipped and adored. While Lucy was a star actress... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385733739
• ISBN13: 9780385733731
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Length: 356 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.0"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

The Pretty One

I liked the book i thought it was good. i just didnt like the fact that when she was hit her face was messed up and she became like new. i think she should have already been pretty but people never noticed it because of her size and because of the clothes she had on. Other than that i thought it was a great read.

Outstanding!!!

This book is great! The author's previous one "Learning to Swim" was a big hit in my house as well.

GREAT READ!!!

I loved this book! It was a terrific, well-written story that moved fast and kept my interest. I would highly recommend it to YAs and others!

Take Another Look

Sisters Megan and Lucy are separated by eleven months - and looks, and popularity - but are extremely close otherwise. At the Chesapeake School of the Arts, lovely Lucy is a drama major while quiet Megan is a "techie" majoring in theatre production, content to stay backstage while her older sister is in the spotlight. Megan trusts Lucy and really looks up to her. Then, on the night of the big high school dance, Megan overhears a conversation in the bathroom in which someone criticizes her outfit and her looks. Another voice chimes in, a voice she'd know anywhere. It belongs to her sister. Stunned, hurt, Megan runs out of the restroom, out of the building, and into the street, where she is hit by a car. She wakes up in the hospital. Having suffered multiple injuries, she'll have to have plenty of rest and physical therapy, and the damage to her face requires reconstructive surgery. When she looks the mirror, she barely recognizes what she sees. While recovering from the accident, Megan lost a significant amount of weight. When she is finally able to return to school, people treat her differently. Some of her classmates don't even realize who she is and think she's a new student. No longer in Lucy's shadow, Megan feels exposed. The surgeries changed not only her face, but her life. The accident (and the conversation which preceded it) upset the balance the sisters once took for granted, and their slightly overweight father and eternally polished mother have different reactions to their youngest daughter's new appearance. Lucy sets her eyes on Drew, who has been Megan's crush since she was a freshman. Drew had an open book the first time Megan saw him, and she later learned that he carries around a dictionary. Drew's also an aspiring playwright and director, so now he's Lucy's crush-of-the-week. Fellow techie and Megan's longtime best friend Simon is being weird when he's around her. Uncomfortable in her (almost new) skin and unable to reach out to Lucy, Megan returns to the things that comfort her: food, baggy clothing, tech work. Then one of the sisters is cast as the leading lady opposite Drew in his original play, and everyone starts acting up. Throughout the story, Megan holds on to who she is on the inside. Both before and after her accident, she values someone's personality more than their looks, and wishes others would do the same.