ALL THAT GLITTERS

All That Glitters by Nicole O'Dell

Mallory has been reading the Scenarios series by Nicole O'Dell. Specifically, she's reading All That Glitters. This tween novel is the story of a twin who wants to be an individual. Drea longs for her own identity so fiercely, she begins to make some bad choices in order to gain popularity and attention at school. When she's gotten pretty far along on her downward spiral, she hits a fork in the road. Drea will either need to tell yet another lie, break another set of rules, and put herself in another questionable situation OR come clean with her parents and put an end to the madness. The fun part? The reader gets to choose which path the protagonist will take. These books are great, because they give a tween reader a choice, something they crave to be able to make on their own, but in the safe setting of fiction. The Scenario books also give the reader a view of the consequences of both a good and bad choice without actually having to face those consequences in real life. I read this book too, and it launched great conversations between Mallory and I on making good choices even when they're hard. Some of the content is geared towards teens (drinking, brief mention of drugs, and making out with boys), but as Mallory and I chatted about, it's good to discuss these things before you're actually faced with them, so you are more prepared to say, "No", when the opportunities arise. 

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