cover image Tales from My Closet

Tales from My Closet

Jennifer Ann Moses. Scholastic Press, $17.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-545-51608-2

Five tenth-grade girls rotate narration duties on a bumpy road to friendship in Moses’s busy YA debut about families and fashion. Beautiful Becka’s life looks perfect, but she struggles with her therapist mother’s tendency to feature their relationship in her self-help books, as well as a disappointing crush on a French university student. Newcomer Justine discovers some unpleasant truths about her parents’ marriage, and her funky vintage clothes don’t seem right in suburban New Jersey. After a summer internship with a fashion designer, Becka’s often-overshadowed friend Robin tries to find her confidence and style as her family copes with her father’s alcoholism. Petite Ann finds a personal style when she inherits her grandmother’s 1950s clothing, but struggles to assert her interest in art and fashion to her practical mother. Less fashion-obsessed is swimmer Polly, who is anxious about her athletic figure, her coach, and her single mother’s dating. Five narrators with stories that mostly tangentially overlap make for an enormous and sometimes confusing cast of characters, but budding fashionistas will enjoy the detailed discussions of clothing, style, and identity. Ages 12–up. (Jan.)