Like Vanessa Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes - Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance Association of Children's Booksellers Best

Association of Children's Booksellers Best Book

but the kids are finally showing some progress fighting as a team

And now that her parents are divorced

My disease is as rare as it is famous

• NCTE Notable Children's Books in the Language Arts

Like Vanessa Juvenile Fiction / Social Themes - Self-Esteem & Self-Reliance Association of Children's Booksellers BestMiddle graders will laugh and cry with thirteen year old Vanessa Martin as she tries to be like Vanessa Williams, the first black Miss America. In this semi autobiographical debut novel set in 1983, Vanessa Martin's real life reality of living with family in public housing in Newark, New Jersey is a far cry from the glamorous Miss America stage. She struggles with a mother she barely remembers, a grandfather dealing with addiction and her own battle