Liz Gallagher Book Title: The Opposite of Invisible Publication Date: January 8, 2008 Publisher: Wendy Lamb Books (Random House) ISBN: 0375841520; 978-0375841521 Author's Website: http://www.lizgallagher.com

Description of Book:

What's the difference between a crush and love? Between love and best-friendship? Alice is about to find out.

Alice is comfortable staying in the background at school, working on projects in the art room, or happily cocooned with her best friend, Jewel, a very cool boy she's known forever. She can talk to Jewel about almost anything. But she can't tell him about her secret crush. Or that she's ready to stop being so invisible, to take some chances with art, friends, even romance. 

Love and friendship have big surprises in store for Alice in this irresistible debut novel set against the lively, quirky, backdrop of Seattle. 

About the Author:

Liz Gallagher grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and was an English major at Penn State. She worked on the editorial staff of Highlights for Children. She is a graduate of the University of Denver Publishing Institute and the Vermont College MFA program in writing for children and young adults. Her home in Seattle is within chomping distance of the Fremont Troll. This novel is her first, and her dream come true.

Excerpt:

The witch dress fits, except that I'm stepping on the hem. It's made of black lacy netting over a red satin linging, with a red ruffle at the hem. Curve-skimming, the fabric is clingly in a good way. The neckline is a deep V. Alluring, like lingerie from teh twenties.

My eyes are sapphires. Usually, they're just your run-of-the-mill blue eyes. But not in this dress. This dress upgrades me to at least semiprecious. Some miracle is at work.

This dress was sent by my Dove Girl. I told her I want to go to the dance, and now I find something irresistable to wear. The only trick left is to get the right person, whoever that may be, to the right place to be impressed by me in this dress.

I'm so ready to show off this look. I just hope my Dove Girl comes t hrough with a guy for me. A little romance. A dance, at least. Slow.

Okay, yeah. I know what guy I want. Simon Murphy.

Forget about him! Just enjoy looking in the mirror for a minute.

For once I'm okay with my skin being pale; it makes sense in this costume. Like I've bene conjuring potions in a cave. And my hair looks fiery. I take down my ponytail, which is up so often I don't even bother to undo it to sleep.

I shake my hair like a girl in a shampoo commercial and know that, in this dress, I will not be the creepy, stringy type of witch who rides on broomsticks. I will be the beautiful kind. The temptress. The kind who knows love spells but doesn't need them.

Even Vanessa the Artiste won't come up with something better-looking than this. Of course she'll be big talk at the dance; she's always gossip, with her burgundy-striped black hair and the fake eyelashes. She gives paople a lot to talk about.

She has a nose ring, and the rumor is it's actually an earring that she stabbed through her own nostril.

If I got one, I'd go for a little fake diamond. THose are kind of cute.

"Alice?" Jewel says, knocking on the plywood door of the dressing room. "Lemme look!"

When I open the door, he doesn't say anything, just reaches out. He touches my hair, at the ends, lightly.

"Definitely get the dress."

I shiver, a little inner earthquake. 

"I definitely am getting it."

Jewel touched my hair.

He waits by the counter, talking to the salesgirl, who looks like she could be Chunky Glasses' girlfriend, except that she is much nicer than him.

"She says she'll shorten it for you for five bucks,"Jewel says.

"Three inches should do it," the salesgirl says. "I was watching you. Awesome dress."

 I hand her the dress. On the way out, Jewel tries on a pair of devil horns. "Not you," I say, grabbing them from his head and positioning them on a Cabbage Patch Kid.

"So does this mean we're going to the Bath?" I ask as we hit the sidewalk.

"Guess so," he tells me. "You have the perfect getup. It'll probably be a riot. You might even get Halloween Queen."

"Right," I say. "Everyone will totally notice me."

"Hey," he says. "You looked really good."

He says "really good" as if he's thinking something else. The way he's been touching me. 

 

 

Reviews:

"A wonderful, true-to-life, how-will-it-end first novel. And a writer to remember -- Liz Gallagher." -- Jerry Spinelli, Newbery Award-winning author of Stargirl and Milkweed

"I want to move to Seattle! I want to be friends with Alice! I want to be as fabulously authentic as she is -- and this book inspires me to try." -- Lauren Myracle, author of the bestselling Internet Girls series 

"Honest and slightly confused, Alice gradually learns the difference between being visible and being yourself and the importance of being true to a true friend." -- Kirkus

"Gallagher writes a familiar story of love found, lost, and then found again, but she does it with such sweetness it will seem as fresh to readers as it does to Alice. She also deftly uses the Seattle setting to best advantage, giving the book a real sense of place. Written with snappy brevity, the story will also work well for reluctant readers, who will find it a manageable length." -- Booklist