Fourteen-year-old Jamie is tired of feeling insecure: at home she’s barraged* with media images of physically perfect young women; at school, she’s hassled by a gang of catty, manicured* classmates. Venting her frustrations* in her diary, she records the adventures of invented superhero Isabella (IS) who, with her signature wrist flick, sends “positivity rays” that destroy her enemy, Myrna, and her “evil clique* of populars.”

    She wrote her personal journal entry on her friend’s computer. After they were assigned an English essay, her friend was going to print the essay for Jamie, but she accidentally prints the journal entry and hands it to Jamie’s English teacher. Jamie’s teacher is so impressed by the journal entry, and she reads it out loud to the class. The English teacher knows a literary agent and she sends it to her friend. The novel becomes a No. 1 bestseller, and Jamie goes overnight from being a nobody to being the best-known teen novelist.

    Julia DeVillers’ humorous first novel is a fairy tale, written in a combination of diary excerpts, instant messages, and Jamie’s spot-on narration. Readers may wish that the novel contained more of the actual IS story that inspires such uproar, but they’ll enjoy joining Jamie as she experiences both highs and lows, copes with fame and fortune, and tries to maintain her IS-like sense of self-empowerment.

    Far-fetched definitely, somewhat predictable* at times, yet this book is engrossing* and fun.

    The book is available at amazon.cn.(SD-Agencies)