Diva without a Cause

by Grace Dent

Overview

Fifteen-year-old Shiraz Bailey Wood's days are filled with hanging around outside Claire's Accessories, her parents work crap jobs, and her school is pretty much loser central. But this loveable British dreamer with a brain and a heart of gold is beginning to feel there might be a lot more to life than minimum wage and the bling of a souped-up car.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316034821
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/01/2009
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.31(w) x 8.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	15 - 18 Years

About the Author

Grace Dent's Diary of a Chav is a bestseller in the UK. Grace is still grounded for dying her mother's best saucepan purple while customizing denim hot pants when she was a teenager, but she also works as a journalist for The Guardian and Radio Times for whom she recently wrote a phenomenally popular Big Brother blog.

She is currently working on the fourth Shiraz book for Hodder UK, and Diary of a Chav #2 will publish in hardcover on the Little, Brown Young Readers list in Fall 2009.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 7-9

In this slangy, journal-style novel, Shiraz Bailey Wood, 15, lives in Essex and attends Mayflower Academy (generally known as Superchav Academy). She's a slacker at school and is behind much of the drama surrounding its official events (such as the fight that broke out at the Winter Festival). Everything is fine, though, until her best friend finds a new love interest and pushes Shiraz into the background; her sister and mother have a fight and Cava-Sue moves out; and a new, tough teacher comes to Mayflower Academy. Suddenly everything Shiraz knows is turned upside down and the only person she can tell is her new diary. This novel is packed with British slang and pop-culture references to the point of confusion. (A 14-page glossary is included.) Still, the plot is universal, proving that teenagers are the same worldwide. Shiraz is a witty and amusing narrator, and there are some laugh-out-loud moments.-Heather E. Miller, Homewood Public Library, AL

School Library Journal

Sixteen-year-old Shiraz Bailey Wood wanted an iPod for Christmas but got a diary instead. "What is the point in spending all December drawing arrows all over the Argos catalogue if NO ONE TAKES NO NOTICE??" In her initial entry, Shiraz hopes (among other things) that her school, Mayflower Academy, will shake its reputation as Superchav Academy, because if there's one thing Shiraz can't stand, it's being called a chav—a British slang term that's defined as an insult to working-class people seen as being fixated on copying American street fashion. Although Shiraz denies the label, her tough attitude and wardrobe of hoop earrings and tracksuits makes it hard to deny. And when her teacher and her sister, Cava-Sue, point out that there is life beyond Mayflower Academy, Shiraz begins questioning her ways. Thick with British teen slang as the diary entries that comprise the text are, the appended glossary is essential. Their rough, street-wise language provides a natural and unique vehicle for readers to see Shiraz's self-exploration and growth. Hilarious and unflinching. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews