North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley is a great novel of self discovery and the acceptance of ones flaws. Terra is a teen girl with a flawed face. A port wine stain and an emotionally abusive father has ruled Terra's life. She covers her face with makeup and cowers in shame when her father makes horrible remarks about her face. Terra's mother eats and cowers to deal with the abuses of her husband. One day while driving home from another laser surgery Terra gets in a car accident and meets a boy Jacob who helps her learn to embrace how she looks and Jacob's mother helps Terra's mother gain self confidence.
This is a delightful and mature young adult read. It tackles weighty subjects in a real way without feeling like a lifetime TV movie. The main characters journey (and the journey that her mother also faces) provides a wonderful lesson of women learning to accept themselves and learning to demand more from the men in their lives.
Appropriateness: This is a remarkable book that both Mothers and Daughters would enjoy and would be a perfect pick for a Mother Daughter Book Club. The book has a few sexual references but no sex scenes and no substance abuse making it appropriate for middle age readers that are looking for a more sophisticated read (although the intended audience would be the 15-19 crowd). The lexile is 850 putting it at a fifth grade level.
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