Description

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Life isn't neat and tidy. It's like a whole lot of balls of brightly colored wool thrown in a basket, with stray beginnings and endings and possibilities everywhere. Let's follow the blue.

Fifteen-year-old Bec has always been the good girl. Growing up with an eccentric celebrity chef mother and a father who suffers from depression, Bec is used to taking care of her two younger siblings and being labeled "the sensible one." But when Bec's parents decide to take a six-week tour of the U.S., she decides that she is sick of being responsible and is ready for some adventures of her own. She meets a new friend named Jaz, dyes her hair, wins money, throws her first party, and then there's the boy thing...
In this intoxicating novel by award-winning author and poet Brigid Lowry, Bec realizes that maybe she isn't so ordinary after all—and that sometimes it doesn't hurt to, as her mother would say, "lighten up and enjoy the ride."

About the Author

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Brigid Lowry is the author of award-winning poetry, short stories, and young adult novels. She is well-known in Australia, where her first novel, Guitar Highway Rose, was a runaway success with young readers and a finalist for or winner of numerous prestigious awards. She spent much of her life in Australia but now lives in New Zealand, where she was born and raised.

Praise For…

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“Imagine a more functional Georgia Nicholson (of Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging) in Perth, Australia, and you'll have the main character in this exhilarating novel.” —Booklist

“[An] inviting Australian novel by the author of Guitar Highway Rose….Readers will find Bec's anecdotes compelling.” —Publishers Weekly

“Funny, fresh characters…A fun read from down under.” —Kirkus

“Lowry is also a poet, and she paints lovely splashes of color that transcend and augment the characters' trials and tribulations….This one is worth ‘bunging' onto the shelves as it's a ‘hell-fun' read.” —School Library Journal

“A lot goes on in this very funny romp, some of it quite profound….[A] delightful trip down under.” —Booklist