The Girl You Thought I Was

May 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-Morgan Kemper has a "dirty little habit" that she desperately wants to hide from her friends and from Eli Jamison, the uber-cute guy she meets at Rita's Reruns, the thrift store where she volunteers to fulfill 30 hours of community service over the summer before her senior year. Outwardly, Morgan comes across as a cute, petite, well-behaved, and well-adjusted teenager. On the inside, this redhead demonstrates a proclivity for lying and harbors rage against her mother for leaving her dad and abandoning Morgan for another man. Phillips leads off with a suspenseful first chapter told in the first person by Morgan as she endeavors to shoplift a bikini from a department store. This character-driven novel set in an unspecified American city progresses with even pacing as it explores themes of forgiveness, friendship, self-perception, and compulsive behavior. Believable characters emerge from Phillips's straightforward writing. Readers will root for Morgan as she confronts issues of fallibility and makes important choices. The element of romance serves as a credible foil for Morgan to consider her own behavior in relation to the destructive decisions her mother made. VERDICT A solid choice for YA readers and libraries interested in engaging works of realistic fiction that also deal with teenagers overcoming destructive behavior.-Kate Reid, The Allen-Stevenson School, New York

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2018
A 17-year-old girl knows she shouldn't shoplift, but it's the only way she can cope with the rage.Morgan, a petite redhead, has been furious since her mother left. She loves her dad, but sometimes the anger gets the better of her. That's when she steals: a lip gloss, a bikini, jewelry. Morgan's luck finally runs out when a security guard sees her slip a pair of $185 sunglasses into her purse. Morgan, always one of the good kids, is now an offender, with required community service. For the rest of the summer, Morgan will spend her Saturday mornings at Rita's Reruns, a nonprofit thrift shop. Luckily, Rita is lovely and supportive, if eccentric. And maybe it's a small perk of the job that Rita's nephew, Eli, is smoking hot. Blond, tanned, and fit, Eli's recovering from a disabling hockey injury, and he's super into Morgan. However, Morgan's not willing to let Eli find out about her shoplifting; can she juggle a new relationship, her recovery, and a whole slew of lies? When the inevitable catastrophe comes, at least she's prepared for it. The book follows a white default; main characters are white, and there is some diversity in secondary characters.Morgan, a likable, troubled protagonist, hits all the requisite issue-book beats with a believable and sympathetic journey from self-loathing and crime toward healing. (Fiction. 13-15)

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June 1, 2018
Grades 9-12 According to family and friends, junior Morgan Kemper is sweet, smart, and together; however, since her parents split a year ago, she's secretly been shoplifting. Despite craving the rush that comes with the act, Morgan repeatedly tells herself each time will be the last. Then she's busted at the mall and sentenced to complete 30 hours of community service over the summer. Morgan believes she can do her time without her friends finding out, but her guilt over the incident grows once she meets Eli, the cute boy who works at the charity store where Morgan volunteers. Suddenly, she's faced with a tough decision: keep quiet or fess up to her friends, taking her chances that she might be hated. Phillips captures the intensity and thrills of shoplifting, plus the dread of getting caught. Residual anxieties rise throughout the story, and the reader's heart races with Morgan's every step of the way. Kleptomania isn't often covered in YA novels, making this a fresh, compulsive read?and its empathy-inducing protagonist steals the show.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2019
Morgan's shoplifting habit began after her mom left her dad for another man, and it ends when she is caught and mandated to do community service at a thrift store. There, Morgan falls for good-guy Eli but is afraid to tell him--and her similarly respectable friends--her dark secret. Morgan's pain, shame, and gradual steps toward recovery are authentically and sensitively portrayed.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)