Totalgirl: The Style Files by Amanda Nichols and Rebecca Lim
Allen & Unwin, 2014 ISBN 9781743316542.
I had mixed feelings about this book. While it demonstrated how
wonderful good friends can be in helping you to achieve your dreams,
I had some nagging doubts about using fashion and magazines as the
basis for it.
The main characters are girls in grade 6/7 and we meet the first of
them, getting ready for her first day back at school, which is a
casual day, thinking about her fashion choices. We hear about
her friends who are 'total fashionistas', how they love to shop for
clothes, and the fashion rules they follow. This is followed up with
the first class assignment of making up a fashion magazine.
I like the way the girls in the story really go all out to follow
their passion.
But I have some concerns about how the stories might come across to
impressionable young readers, when there is so much misinformation
produced by the fashion world and magazines today, especially about
the way people look and dress.
The book is 511 pages long and contains six stories, all of the same
style.
Tiffany Boyer