Starry Night

July 21, 2014
Gillies’s (Happens Every Day) first YA novel traces the rise and fall of a young artist’s first love and how it changes her course. High school sophomore Wren is eager to spend her junior year abroad, studying art in France at Saint-Rémy, where Vincent van Gogh created The Starry Night, her favorite masterpiece. But that’s before a magical evening at a Metropolitan Museum of Art event orchestrated by her museum director father. There, decked out in her mother’s precious Oscar de la Renta gown, Wren is swept off her feet by a handsome young musician, who appears to be just as enamored with her. Over the next few weeks their feelings for each other intensify, making Wren lose sight of her dream of going to France. The enchantment of the couple’s first evening together outshines the rest of the novel, making subsequent conflicts, squabbles, and betrayals anticlimactic by comparison. Still, Wren’s rude awakening from her fairy-tale happiness will be felt deeply, alerting romantics to the danger of losing oneself amid the dazzle of infatuation. Ages 12–up. Agent: Bill Clegg, William Morris Endeavor.

August 1, 2014
An actor and memoirist's debut novel for teens explores the exhilaration-and heartbreak-of passionate first love. Fifteen-year-old Wren attends a life-changing party at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (her father is its director), where she connects with her older brother's new friend, the charismatic, talented musician Nolan. Though they've just met, the two feel a magical connection and slip away to another dance party with Nolan's friends, ruining Wren's borrowed designer gown and upsetting Wren's parents, who promptly ground her. Smitten Wren persists in seeing Nolan, despite her parents' wishes. Gillies captures the impulsive nature of teen love and its consequences along with nicely detailed secondary characters (little sister Dinah's a cutie with her own cooking show; Wren's parents draw sympathy with their real-time reactions to Wren's relationship). Authentically depicted mother-daughter clashes allow readers to empathize with besotted Wren and outraged Nan-especially when Wren abruptly abandons long-cherished dreams of attending an art program in France to be near Nolan. Occasionally, amateurish moments disrupt (some dialogue sounds stilted; some transitions are announced at chapter beginnings). Still, readers willing to overlook such moments will find themselves engaged by Wren and her headlong dash into love; the lack of tidy happy endings underscores the grittily real feeling of the story's emotional affairs. An imperfect but authentic look at teen love and betrayal that will entertain and touch readers. (Fiction. 12-16)

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August 1, 2014

Gr 7 Up-Wren has dreamed about spending the fall semester of her junior year at the exclusive Saint-Remy art school in France ever since she first learned about the program. Wren wants to look up at the same sky and stars that influenced Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night, her favorite painting. Her parents support her dream and try not to put too much pressure on her to finish the application while maintaining the grades required-Wren has a learning disability and they understand her creative process. Her father is the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and she is finally invited to attend a special gala event. Even before the night begins, she can feel that this party might bring her something extra special. At dinner Wren is seated next to Nolan, the hottest guy she has ever seen up close. He's a senior in high school, but kind of famous already because of his band. That night they make a connection that might change everything she thinks she knows about herself, her friends, and love. Gillies's work as a memoirist certainly influences Starry Night, which is written with a perspective that only an adult's hindsight can bring. The conversational style will give readers the feeling that the protagonist is a close friend sharing her deepest secrets. The author's YA debut is best as an aspirational pick for younger teens; older readers will find a smarter and more intense story of first love in Lauren Myracle's The Infinite Moment of Us (Abrams, 2013).-Joy Piedmont, LREI, New York City

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2014
Grades 6-9 Wren has had a close circle of friends since before she was born. Known as the Turtles, Wren and her four best friends were all conceived after their parents read Lady Chatterley's Lover for their book club. Wren has that blend of worldly knowledge and social navet' sometimes found in children raised in wealthy Manhattan families. Her father is the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Wren is a talented artist. Just before one of the Met's extravagant openings, Wren meets Nolan, a boy whose divorced mother allows him lots of freedom. Soon Wren is hopelessly in love, valuing her relationship with Nolan even above her long-cherished dream of studying art in France. There is a lot of telling here; descriptions of conversations, clothing, and background filler may slow some readers. Still, there is much to recommend about this touching story of first love, betrayal, and friendship. Recommend to fans of Lauren Myracle's Eleven series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)