The Prettiest
Why this book?
You’re pretty pretty, but not that into sports. Decades later, I still remember these words of rejection from my seventh-grade crush. The Prettiest brought up all my middle school emotions during the first chapter when someone creates and spreads a list of the top 50 prettiest girls in the school. The pain and humiliation the main characters experience as they struggle with their relationship to the list—on it, off it, pretty but not the prettiest—was painfully realistic. Thankfully, author Brigit Young fills the story with humor and moments of sweet friendship and leaves the reader ready to change the expectations of beauty once and for all.