HIGH CHEEKBONES

by Erika Tamar ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1990

Continuing her series of realistic portraits of New York City teens (It Happened at Cecilia's, 1989), Tamar introduces a tough street-kid to the world of modeling The result is a Mexican standoff. Alice Lonner, 14, who has an incompetent mother and a helpless younger brother, is determined to control her own future. Thus, when she is discovered by a model-agency employee who is helping Upper East Side shoppers take their groceries home, she grabs the chance to become a photographic model. Her career proceeds slowly until she is taken under the wings of a disillusioned photographer who--for his own reasons--is interested in her; as Alice becomes more successful, she begins to fall in love with him. But a life-threatening crisis involving her brother forces her to realize that in this business she is only a commodity. Alice's toughly realistic outlook, along with Tamar's sharp portrait of the modeling world, lifts this above its stock characterizations and melodramatic plot. Believable and entertaining.

Pub Date: March 1, 1990

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 260

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1990

Categories: CHILDREN'S