The Fashion Committee

Starred review from April 3, 2017
Readers don’t need to be fashionistas to appreciate the dilemmas of Charlene “Charlie” Dean and John Thomas-Smith as they prepare for a garment design competition, hoping to win a scholarship to a prestigious fine arts high school. Charlie knows just about everything there is to know about fashion design; immersing herself in it is a welcome escape from life with a drug-addicted father and his string of sketchy girlfriends. John, a classmate, couldn’t care less about the clothes, but is desperate to get into the school, and the contest is his last chance. As the rivals furiously brainstorm ideas, search for models, betray friends, and misplace their priorities in a race to win, they undergo significant changes that profoundly alter their outlooks. Charlie and John’s voices ring clear in a series of fashion diary entries (a requirement of the contest), reflecting their personalities, attitudes, and inner conflicts. Filled with hilarious and tragic moments alike, Juby’s (The Truth Commission) vibrant novel thoroughly explores the hearts, souls, and minds of two very different teens. Ages 12–up. Agent: Hilary McMahon, Westwood Creative Artists.

March 15, 2017
Talented teens vie for a highly coveted fashion scholarship.British Columbian Juby (The Truth Commission, 2015, etc.) here presents the small-town (her own hometown of Nanaimo) drama of two public high school students who have their hearts set on gaining entry to an elite private arts school. Both Charlene -Charlie- Dean, a fashion-obsessed sophomore, and John Thomas-Smith, a -calm-and-aloof- type whose passion is metalworking, seek to better their circumstances and pursue their artistic dreams by winning the fashion-design competition for a one-year scholarship to Green Pastures Academy, which boasts -the best fashion program of any high school in the country- and which, incidentally, neither of their families can afford. Though seemingly antagonists, alternating narrators John and Charlie, both white, serve rather as dueling protagonists whose compelling struggles are revealed through the distinctively voiced diaries they must keep in the months leading up to the fashion show. Juby's thoughtful bildungsroman excels in showcasing and normalizing those on society's fringe--whether it be in her bold portrayal of differing socio-economic class issues or subtle examination of gender identity. Her tale gains great momentum from the grit and ingenuity Charlie, who believes the -most chic thing is self-sufficiency,- exhibits in tackling hurdles, resulting from being a child of drug abusers, alongside John, who's also a child of largely absent parents and whose snarky bitterness makes an excellent foil to Charlie's ebullience. Entertaining, smart, and inspiring. (Fiction. 12-18)

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Starred review from April 1, 2017
Gr 9 Up-Charlie Dean and John Thomas-Smith live on the wrong side of the tracks, but they both want to attend the private and exclusive Green Pastures Academy of Art and Applied Design. Their local public high school is so poorly funded that all nonessential classes, including art, have been eliminated from the curriculum. But every year, Green Pastures sponsors an emerging talents scholarship worth one year's tuition to its exclusive academy for the winner of a discipline-specific competition. This year, Charlie Dean is in luck. The competition focuses on fashion design, her specialty and lifelong obsession. John, however, is into metalwork, but this being his junior year and last chance to enter, he's fudging his way into the competition just to get his foot in the door. Juby has created two compelling, multidimensional narrators whom readers will laugh with and cry for as they vie for the coveted prize. Charlie Dean is a master at turning the sow's ear that life has dealt her into a unique silk purse, while John is so consumed by anger at his circumstances that he fails to appreciate the many blessings laid at his doorstep. The cleverly deceptive title, cover art, and opening pages belie the strength of the protagonists' personalities as well as the tragic elements that have shaped their lives and define the story. VERDICT An excellent purchase for YA.-Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

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