The Look Book

July 1, 2011

Gr 7 Up-This book profiles 50 past and present beauty icons, focusing on their unique "look" and including a quarter-page glossy photo. Instead of covering the full process of each woman's beauty screen, a single attribute-eyes, lips, brows, skin, or hair-is highlighted. Featured looks include Marilyn Monroe's juicy, red lips, Angelina Jolie's cat eyes, Jennifer Lopez's glowing skin, and Kate Winslet's no-makeup makeup. Clear and succinct instructions for achieving each look appear on the facing page. The presentation is clean, with enough information to satisfy, but not overwhelm. The accompanying illustrations of lip-pencil lines, eye-shadowed lids, etc., are particularly effective. An illustrated lineup of makeup brushes describes how each tool is used. There is a fair representation of ethnic divas, though most are from the latter half of the 20th century: Grace Jones, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Lucy Liu, to name a few. A few of the selected photos are poorly chosen, either unflattering or failing to showcase the described feature, but this is a minor blemish. The overall presentation is fun and playful. Teens will enjoy trying new looks and learning a bit of style history in the process.-Richelle Roth, Boone County Public Library, KY

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