CONFESSIONS OF A HIGH SCHOOL DISASTER

A contemporary realistic YA novel told with humor and poignancy in 365 diary entries, one for each day of the most seminal year of Chloe Snow’s life (to date, at least). The novel is peppered with texts, lists, emails, and tweets, making it a modern take on a classic coming-of-age story.

Chloe Snow is about to start ninth grade when her brilliant, beautiful, artistic mom announces she can't create great art in suburban Massachusetts, and takes off to Mexico. Bewildered at being left behind with only her (socially awkward) dad as company, Chloe throws herself into a series of new pursuits, including auditioning for the school a cappella group, making new friends, and landing the lead in the school musical (as a freshman!). But in this quest to figure out exactly who she is and how she is going to navigate the socially challenging first year in high school without her mom around, she attracts the attention of Mac Brody (the cuter half of THE Senior Couple) and Bernadette Sanz (the school’s Mean Senior Girl).

Throwing caution to the wind, Chloe revels in Mac’s attentions and one fateful night, her naivete—and a little bit of alcohol—results in her declaring her true feelings in front of a group of his friends. This reckless act sets off a series of events that force Chloe to grow up faster than she should, or than she wants to. To emerge from this mess that is partly her creation, she must both examine her own choices and simultaneously rethink her judgments about the people closest to her.

A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF CHLOE SNOW will appeal to readers who enjoyed the likably flawed narrator of Bridget Jones’s Diary, with themes that will resonate with fans of The Duff and the cult hit Glee.

Emma Chastain is the Editorial Director at BN.com, and reads for B&N’s Discover Great New Writers program. She is the founding editor of B&N Reads and manages B&N Teen, B&N Sci-Fi/Fantasy, and B&N Kids, a family of three genre blogs. She has worked at Barnes & Noble for 11 years, including at SparkNotes as founding editor of SparkLife, a blog about books and teen culture, which more than doubled site traffic in one year, and in overseeing social media for Barnes & Noble generally.