Outside Beauty - Cynthia Kadohata
Golddigger mom takes daughters along for the ride.
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- Author:Cynthia Kadohata
- # of pages: 265
- Publisher:Atheneum
- Original Publication Date: 06/03/2008
- Genre: Fiction - Family Life
- Hardcover: $16.99
- Publisher's Recommended Reading Level: 12
Parents need to know
Families can talk about what the author means by the title, Outside Beauty. Does she mean outer beauty, or something more? Is Shelby's mom happy with her beauty? When Shelby insists she lives in an alternate universe where beauty isn't the most important thing, her mother replies, "Ain't no such universe." Who do you think is right? Where on TV and at the movies can you find examples of people who agree with Shelby's mom?
Message
Social Behavior:
The girls try to run away several times. Much of the questionable social behavior is by their mother. In her narcissistic way, she trains the girls to focus on their looks to "catch" men. "My mother decided she wanted us all to be . . . sexbombs, each in her own way." Shelby says she practices manners from the heart, while to her mother, "manners were just a way of getting another bauble." The family picks up two hitchhikers. Shelby calls Maddie's father KIA (for know-it-all); he tries to impose order and rules on the girls.
Consumerism:
Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:
Marilyn, 15, starts smoking when a man gives her cigarettes. She says "Good job, sweetie," when her 6-year-old sister puffs on it. Shelby makes her younger sister stop. Shelby says her mother and her boyfriends drank too much.
Violence
Maddie's father spanks her. A new boyfriend shouts at their mother and insults her; when she tells him to leave, he says, "I won't leave until I get what I paid for." (He does eventually go.)
Sex
Shelby's mom has four daughters by four different men. She uses men to support her with gifts and money; her daughters divide them all into "minor boyfriends" and "major boyfriends" (their fathers). Their mother goes off with a car mechanic she just met, prompting Shelby's older sister to say their mom likes S-E-X.
Language
Common Sense says
What's the story?
Reviewed by Carrie Wheadon
Is it any good?
Older readers will clearly see their mother's desperation, but younger readers may miss some of the subtleties as they view Shelby's mother through her eyes. Even the accident doesn't really change their mother; her lack of epiphany is sad but realistic. The conclusion ties up rather abruptly, but grown-up readers, at least, will wonder if returning the girls to their old life is really such a happy ending.
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