MAKING THE CUT

A teen fashionista enters a reality TV designing contest.

Obsessed by fashion all her life and determined to become a designer, 16-year-old Chloe reacts with both exhilaration and fear when her favorite TV show, Design Diva, announces a series that will focus on teens, offering as prize an internship with a major designer. Encouraged by her family, her best friend and the owner of the local fabric store, Chloe works hard to create three original designs . As she succeeds in getting a spot on the show and then works through its challenges, she wavers between confidence and timidity. Complicating matters is the fact that her hometown rival, Nina, has also made it on the show, and Nina has been stealing Chloe’s designs since they were young girls. Does Chloe have a chance to win? Gurevich aims at middle schoolers, focusing on descriptions of Chloe’s designs, how she imagines them and how she fares in each stage of the competition. The arc of the show provides natural highs and lows, and the challenges that the young designers face feel typical of reality television, adding to the story’s realism. Greatly aiding the book’s appeal are the abundant fashion illustrations contributed by Hagel, allowing readers to envision nearly all the designs.

Thrills and excitement for fashion fans.