Confederates Don't Wear Couture

May 1, 2013
History-nerd extraordinaire Libby Kelting returns for another summer of costumed drama. Having spent the previous summer in colonial garb (Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink, 2012), Libby doesn't find it too hard to agree to spend the months before college on campaign with Civil War re-enactors, in partnership with her gay, designer BFF, Dev. They will be sutlers to the Confederate armies (who have a way better sense of style than the Yankees). Libby will model the gowns; Dev will take orders and sew them up when they get home; they will make buckets of dough. The only problem? Libby will have to spend the summer far from her boyfriend, aspiring journalist Garrett. Once in the South, Libby and Dev meet their sponsors, a canny businesswoman and her adorable, history-loving son, Beau, an officer with the regiment they're attached to--and whose family is bedeviled by a ghost. Hijinks and romantic anxiety ensue. The merriment is compounded by a troop of overeager Boy Scouts, an evil land developer and the arrival of Garrett, who uses the excuse of the ghost to extend his internship with the Boston Globe to the battlefields of the Deep South. The ghost plot feels tired and Scooby-Doo-ish--in fact, Scooby is explicitly invoked, joining a host of other pop-culture references that range from Glee to Twilight. It's all harmless summer fun, but it has the feeling of the retread that it is; perhaps next year Libby should get a different sort of summer job. (Fiction. 12 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-Abandoning her plan to visit her boyfriend in Boston, Libby Kelting, the protagonist from Strohm's Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink (Houghton Harcourt, 2012) and her best friend, Dev, a fashion designer, head to the South to sell period gowns to the wives and girlfriends of Civil War reenactors. Libby is secretly a history nerd and is excited about this adventure. However, traveling from battleground to battleground without the comforts of daily life (showers, air-conditioning, and Starbucks) takes its toll on the teens, as does the ghost that has been haunting Corporal Beau Anderson, who happens to be hot and has his eye on Libby. Readers will wonder if Libby will fall for Beau or remain loyal to Garrett. Teens who like a mix of realistic fiction, historical information, and humor will enjoy Confederates Don't Wear Couture.-Shannon Seglin, San Antonio Public Library

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013
Grades 7-10 History-loving Libby Kelting spent last summer in Camden, Maine, churning butter in a corset (Pilgrims Don't Wear Pink, 2012). This summer she is taking to the battlefieldsliterally. Dev, her fab designer best friend, has lined up a gig selling Confederate Couture to the wives and girlfriends of Civil War reenactors, and yes, that means Libby is modeling hoop skirts in the Alabama heat. While her boyfriend, Garrett, is working for a newspaper in Boston, she is hanging around Beau, a handsome, waltzing, history-spouting reenactor. Dev proclaims that what happens in 1861 stays in 1861, but Libby can't forget her Northern beau that easily, can she? Throw in a ghost that is haunting the campgrounds and you've got the makings of a memorable summer below the Mason-Dixon Line. Fun beach reading peppered with plenty of fascinating historical tidbits.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)