LitPick Review
Amanda Walsh, a hopeful artist with very low self-esteem, goes by Zero. She expects her summer to be simple and spent having fun with her best friend. But it goes a little something like this: Zero and her best friend get in a fight and decide not to be friends anymore, Zero gets into her dream college, and she falls in love. When scholarship money falls through, Zero is devastated; she can’t afford the prestigious college. On top of it all, Zero’s parents are always fighting. Then she meets Mike at a club. He’s in a punk band, and Zero begins making the bands fliers and posters. Will Mike be enough to make her feel better about herself, or will he make things worse?
Opinion:
Throughout the book Tom Leveen makes his readers think that Zero is an overweight teenager, until she meets Mike and we discover she was just wearing really big clothes and thought she was fat. By making us think she was overweight, we could relate to her even more. Not only did she hate most of her artwork, she also hated herself. People who struggle with the way they look would read this book and realize they are not what they see. Mike was a very good guy for Zero. He showed her she was beautiful and made her more confident with herself and her art.
