Tori By Design

by Colleen Nelson

Can difficult choices be made without bias…tape?

Tori Edwards jumps at the chance to move from Winnipeg to New York City with her family. After all, NYC is the place to be for an aspiring fashion designer, and her new high school has access to a placement program with FIT—the Fashion Institute of Technology. Life is fuller and more chaotic than she imagined, but she hangs on between boy-troubles, portfolio-building, and struggling to find perfect accessories. Then, just as it looks like Tori might achieve all she has dreamed, shocking news from her parents unravels her carefully designed plans and she is forced to look beyond the pages of a fashion magazine for answers.

192 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2011

About the author

Colleen Nelson is the author of YA fiction books Finding Hope (2016), 250 Hours (2015), The Fall (2013) and Tori by Design (2011). 'The Fall' and 'Tori by Design' both won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. 'The Fall' was also nominated for the White Pine Award. Currently living in Winnipeg with her husband, two young sons and three grown step-children, Colleen manages to eke out time to write everyday, but usually in the early morning after a strong cup of coffee. A junior high school teacher for ten years before having children, Colleen is familiar and comfortable with the tricky phase of life called 'adolescence'. Now a Teacher-Librarian in Winnipeg, Canada, Colleen is constantly on the look-out for books that will catch the attention of her reading-reluctant sons.

Reviews

[Heather(Gibby) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This a cute story

[Kyra · Rating 2 out of 5]

The category that I am putting this book under is a book I have been meaning to read. This book had been on my bookshelf for a long time and I just haven't gotten the chance to read it until now. This book is about a girl names Tori who has the opportunity to move to New York from Winnipeg because of her Dads work. At first she was nervous to move because it is a big change, but she then realized that there is no better place for an up and coming fashion designer. Tori's passion is fashion and she is really good at it. When she arrives in New York, she is not impressed with her tiny apartment (which had a dead mouse in it), or how the first few days pf school went. She did not really have any friends until she meets her friend Avery who becomes her best friend. And of course you can't have a coming of age novel without boy trouble. So there is this boy named Zak who seems to get along with Tori really well, but of course, he is the most popular guy in school with a popular girlfriend named Anna. Anna is "queen bee" at her school who is very jealous of Tori and gives her a hard time. Throughout the book you will go through Tori and her journey through getting an opportunity to go to an amazing fashion school, her family having some troubles, and meeting a famous fashion designer that lives just downstairs who gives Tori unbelievable opportunities like going to Beau Monde Gala. This is a fast moving novel that has a lot going on at once. As I said, this is a coming of age novel that is a bit young for me personally. I would say the directed audience is children around the age of twelve. I did really like the setting because it was cool hearing about Winnipeg in a book. I recognized some of the places they talked about, and that was really cool. As well as hearing about New York because it is somewhere I have always wanted to go. This is Nelson's first young adult novel and I hate to say it, but you can tell. The story line is so basic, and the writing style is nothing special. All in all this was not one of my favourite books, just because it was so young for me. I know a lot of kids at my internship that would like this book though.

[Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute, fun read. I'm a fan of little-fish-in-a-big-pond stories, and I really like novels set in New York City - so this book really appealed to me!

At first, I thought it was going to be a typical, fluffy, girly teen novel (not that there's anything wrong with that! Those types of novels are my guilty pleasure!) But halfway through the novel - BAM - the protagonist and her (very likeable) family must come to terms with a serious issue that affects their lives dramatically. Nelson did a good job of incorporating a difficult theme into a humorous story without making the book sound like an after school special.

The only issue I had was that the story wrapped up a little too quickly and conveniently for me. As other reviewers have commented, I would love to read a series about Tori's further adventures in New York.

[Naomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surpised by this book. Tori, a young 15 year old girl is into Fashion design. She convinces her family to move to new York so she can be in the fashion center of the world. Her Dad gets a job at Hayward School and Tori must leave her friends and home in Winnipeg.
She learns that life is not all glamour in their tiny New York Apartment.
Good book about family relationships, friends, romance and dealing with life issues. Well written.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tori wants nothing more than to e a fashion designer. When se convinces her family to move to New York for a year, what she face may have her hopping a plan back to Winnipeg before she can say Garment District.

The ending left a lot to be desired and I could see this being a set up for a series about this character.

[Candy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than I thought it would be...sucked me in from the first chapter to the last.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snow Willow Nominee 2012. Good story!