All Categories
Product Description Bailey Morgan isn't the type of girl who shows a lot of skin, but somehow, she ends up in a dressing room at the mall with her friend Delia applying a temporary tattoo to her lower back. Never one to suffer fashion doubt, trendsetter Delia knows exactly where she wants her own tattoo: on her stomach, right where her shirt ends—can you say "midriff"? Annabelle, the quiet one, chooses the back of her neck, and tomboy Zo plasters hers on the top of her foot. The tattoos will last for three days, and Delia's sure that with them, the four friends will absolutely kill at the school dance. Unfortunately, killing is just what someone has in mind, and Bailey, Delia, Annabelle, and Zo are in for the battle of their lives. Along with her tattoo, each girl receives a gift—a supernatural power to help them in their fight. As Bailey's increasingly frightening dreams reveal the nature of their enemy, it becomes clear to the girls that it's up to them to save the world. And if they can get Delia to stop using her newfound power to turn gum wrappers into Prada pumps, they might actually stand a chance. From Publishers Weekly Barnes's ( Golden) book about four friends who get special powers from their temporary tattoos has some fun moments, despite the far-out premise. Even 15-year-old narrator Bailey acknowledges the surreal situation when she considers explaining what's going on to her mother: "An evil fairy princess who doubles as one of the three Fates is sucking out the souls of innocent people, and my friends and I have been imbued with the powers to stop her, but we only have the powers for like another twelve hours." But readers learn enough about the protagonist to believe that she could be a descendent of the powerful Sidhe, and the girls cleverly put to use their powers (Annabelle can control minds, Zo can see the future and Bailey can start fires). The book's best moments may come from ditzy Delia, with the power of transmogrification, who turns a hotel door lock into butterscotch pudding, plus gives the girls Rollerblades when they're on the chase, including a fashionable pair for herself that look like high heels. Delia also delivers the book's best line when facing off against evil Alecca: "You think you're bad?... I'm on the cheerleading squad; I know what real evil looks like." In the end, readers will get a few good laughs from these sassy heroines. Ages 12-up. (Jan.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist Imagine the gang from the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series with magic tattoos that give them each different powers. Fashionable, boy-crazy Delia can now transmogrify objects; athletic Zo has become prescient; and brainy Annabelle reads minds and can speak through others. Narrator Bailey gets two gifts: telekinesis and telepathy, because she is also the liaison between the mysterious fairies and Fates who are fighting to gain control of our world. Barnes, a recent Yale graduate, has made great progress since her first novel, Golden (2006). The plot complexities are many and varied--Celtic mythology, Wiccan practices, high-school crushes, and mean-girl cliques--but easy enough to follow. Spunky, fun-loving, and sometimes cranky teen-girl friendships and realistic dialogue propel this character-driven, fast-paced read. Debbie Carton Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved About the Author Jennifer Lynn Barnes will graduate from Yale University in May 2006. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 1 "Passion Purple, Fruity Fuchsia, Playful Pink." Delia Cameron smiled as she came to the rose-colored nail polish. According to Delia, pink was the new pink. She'd tried to explain it to me once in terms of the color orange, but fashion wasn't really my forte, and I was pretty sure I had completely missed the point. At the age of fifteen, I more or less had to face the fact