Critique de Booklist

Gr. 6^-9. "Beautiful is confidence, beautiful is smart, beautiful is dedication, beautiful is unusual rather than samesamesame." That's the message Pratt, founder of Sassy and Jane magazines, wants to convey in this oversize book of personal profiles of young women, a few of whom (like LeAnn Rimes and Oksana Baiul) will be known to readers. The girls, who range in age from 14 to 19, seem nicely varied in terms of personality and interests--from model to equestrian to zine "edatrix." The single "virtual" profile of Kyoko Date (a computer-generated 17-year-old complete with pictures and a favorite movie, Toy Story) is the most bizarre. During the course of four or five pages, the girls talk about what they do for fun, about their work and their clothes, and, occasionally, about what they think beauty is. Except perhaps for Kyoko's "opinions," there are no real surprises in what the girls have to say; the profiles seem more chatty than salient to Pratt's goal. But there's no denying the appeal of the photos--posed and candid, in black and white and color--which makes this a good book to put out on the display table. --Stephanie Zvirin