Josephine Foster, or Zo Jo as she is called in the biz, is a member of the paparazzi. She is 16 and has a distinct advantage over her competition: she is short and can pass for 11 years old. She is able to get into places that no one else can by pretending to be a young girl looking for her mom, or a young girl playing on her Ipod.
Zo Jo has been given a way out of her paparazzi ways: Snap a few pictures of a young singer at a retreat and hand them off to an editor. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong, She feels awful about invading this young man's privacy, but she needs the money. She goes on an emotional rollercoaster ride while fighting with her conscience. This star, Ned Hartnett, is not your average, steal the spotlight kind of celebrity. He is a real person that she can't get out of her head. Why can't she just take the pictures and get out? Life would be much less complicated if she wasn't falling in love with her target...
I loved this book. It is 265 pages and I was able to finish it in one afternoon. This story is cute and it gives a different perspective to the paparazzi. You always think of these people as "soul stealers", people who will do anything to get paid. Zo Jo isn't like that. She is doing a job she is good at until she saves enough money to go to photography school. I love the fact that she is easy to relate to. She has a hard time sorting through her thoughts and feelings and deciding on whom she can and cannot trust.
There were parts of this book that had me laughing out loud and parts where I was silently cheering for Jo and trying to tell her what to do! The book had a great ending and did not leave any questions unanswered, which I loved...
This book is a wonderful debut novel by Allison Rushby and it will be the perfect addition to my 8th grade classroom library. If you are in need of a good, cute, clean book, this is the book for you! You will not be disappointed.
Shooting Stars will be realeased on February 28, 2012
Published by Walker & Company
Read more about this book on Goodreads
That sounds like a good book! I like the sound of the combination of fantasizing about glamour (being paparazzi, meeting pop stars, etc.) with the character of deciding between doing your job and caring about the person. Nice review.
ReplyDeleteIt really was a very cute book!! I'm glad you enjoyed my review. I will be hosting a giveaway for this book starting February 15 if you wanna check back and enter! :)
Deletehoping it will be int
Deleterad review