Holmes, Elizabeth 1957–

(Elizabeth Ann Holmes)

PERSONAL:

Born 1957.

ADDRESSES:

Home and office—NY.

CAREER:

Editor and author. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, publications editor in department of architecture, art, and planning.

WRITINGS:

The Playhouse Near Dark: Poems, Carnegie Mellon University Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 2007.

Pretty Is (young adult novel), Dutton Children's Books (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

In her debut young-adult novel Pretty Is, editor and writer Elizabeth Holmes focuses on a young girl whose insecurities about moving from elementary school to middle school are magnified by her growing jealousy over her best friend's increasing disinterest. While Kayla begins spending time with another friend from school during the summer after fifth grade, Erin is left alone with her boring older sister Monica, whose interests extend only to knitting and playing basketball. She worries that she will be considered unpopular because of her relationship to Monica, and also that Kayla's increasingly cutting comments toward her will also affect her status among older students. When the popular students do not welcome her into their group after sixth grade begins, Erin is goaded into planning her revenge on the unwitting Kayla. Ultimately, the consequences of her action and the pain it causes inspire the preteen to revisit her better nature and take responsibility for her act and the emotions that sparked it.

Reviewing Pretty Is for Kirkus Reviews, a critic noted that Holmes "realistically creates the angst-filled tween's world with darkness and hope," and "expertly … manipulates the text and mood" in her debut novel. In School Library Journal, Debbie S. Hoskins noted the slow pace of the story, but concluded that the author "writes beautifully." She also predicted that the worries of the main character in Pretty Is "may resonate" with readers of the same age.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, July-August, 2007, Deborah Stevenson, review of Pretty Is, p. 470.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2007, review of Pretty Is.

School Library Journal, July, 2007, Debbie S. Hoskins, review of Pretty Is, p. 104.