Hilary Duff: A Not-So-Typical Teen

by Nancy E. Krulik

At six years old, Hilary Duff was following in her big sister's footsteps and traveling as a dancer. But she knew that acting was her true passion, and before long the precocious preteen had charted a course for Hollywood. Little Hil wowed fans with her performances in Soul Collector and Casper Meets Wendy, but it wasn't until a television show called Lizzie McGuire that Hilary became a household name. Now this talented teen is destined for success! With a smash hit television show, a new career as a recording artist, and a line of merchandise in the works, Hilary just keeps getting hotter! Packed with trivia, quizzes, and fun facts, Hilary A Not-So-Typical Teen will give you the inside scoop on all the Duff stuff!

Genres: Biography

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2003

About the author

Nancy Krulik is the author of more than 100 books for children and young adults, including three New York Times bestsellers. She is best known, however, for being the author and creator of the Katie Kazoo Switcheroo book series, which has brought her to the attention of second, third, and fourth graders nationwide.

Nancy has also written extensively for teens and is well known as a biographer of Hollywood's hottest young stars. Her knowledge of the details of celebrities lives has made her a desired guest on several entertainment shows on the E! network as well as on Extra and Access Hollywood. She can be seen there talking about the secret lives of such celebs as Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Hilary Duff, and Frankie Muniz. Nancy has also been a guest on radio broadcasts nationwide discussing the superstars she has researched over the years.

As the author of several teen and preteen advice books, including Grosset and Dunlap's Prom!: The Complete Guide to a Truly Spectacular Night, Nancy has been interviewed by several prominent magazines including Cosmo Girl, Teen, Teen People, Seventeen, and Teen Celebrity. She has also been the celebrity guest for three Teen People chat presentations. Nancy has recently begun to delve into the teen novel market, writing four romances for young adults, all of which will be published between 2004 and 2005.

Nancy currently lives in Manhattan with her husband, composer Daniel Burwasser, their two children, Amanda and Ian, and a crazed cockerspaniel named Pepper .

Reviews

[Quraishah · Rating 5 out of 5]

i loveee this book. i read it when i was 12. :) amazing since i am a huge fan of hers!

[Andrew ✝️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilary Duff was one of my favorite singers as a teenager. I can still remember thinking she looked so hot in whatever she wore whether in a movie or when she appeared in magazines. I was not and am not a "superfan" of hers. I did, however, know who she was because of "Casper Meets Wendy" as opposed to most fans knowing her from "Lizzie McGuire." I kinda missed the entire show until Aaron Carter, another of my teenage crushes, appeared on an episode. I watched it the night it aired. I was the fan of her Casper movie and her music career and movies, sans LM. I've always wanted to watch the series, though.

This book is about Hilary from birth till just before her smash hit album "Metamorphosis" came out. I remember her promoting that in September of that year, just a month before her label re-released her Christmas album. Till recently, I had no idea her first cd was the Christmas one. I always thought she did two albums at once and decided to release them a month apart. Oh, well.

Not being a "superfan" made this a more interesting read, perhaps. Though some of those SF's will read anything and everything about their idol. There was new information about her, like some of her acting roles that I didn't know about, or some of the things I wouldn't have paid much attention to like her makeup and her "Stuff by Hilary Duff" line since I'm a guy.

There was an interesting numerology test where you write the letters for each letter of your first, middle (if you have one; if multiple you'd write each one with the numbers) and last name[s] to find out what number you get for your personality, not only to find out what it says about you but to also find out whether you'd allegedly be able to be "best buds" with Hil. Yes, I actually did it, and no, you can't see my paper on it. Suffice it to say, I didn't get the right number to be an allegedly compatible friend lol.

This book claims that Hilary's middle name is 'Ann,' but the last time I looked it up, the internet says it is actually 'Erhard.' Further down the search results, I found a claim that her full name is Hilary Ann Lisa Duff. ...Or could it be Hilary Ann Lisa Erhard Duff? 🤔 Which is it? Quick, call a superfan. We've got a crisis on our hands!

Another "crisis" could be that there was an inaccuracy on page 60. Krulik stated that one of the first songs from "Metamorphosis" that Hilary debuted early was called "Voice In My Head." The song is actually called "Little Voice." Everyone makes mistakes.

I was surprised to see the author decided to tell readers that if they failed the Hilary test about everything to know about her that they should stop doing their homework and reread this book instead. Not exactly a good message for impressionable teens, lol. Not only was it interesting to see the internet referred to as the "World Wide Web" for the second time since I read this biography of Britney Spears, I found it slightly amusing that out of the 10 Hilary links provided, only one of them is even still up. I mean... it's been 17 years, so... 🤷‍♂️.

These are some of my other comments on this biography. In the filmography section, she's listed as having portrayed Cinderella... this is only partially true. Her character's name, while being the Cinderella of the film, was Sam. There be them numerous pretentious exclamation points; and, Hmm. There's a trivia quiz at the back, but there's no answer in the "cheat sheet" part for question 25. Oops!

For the most part, this book was very well put together. I'm gonna give it 4 stars.

[Shahna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very poorly written. Like a young teenager wrote it. A lot of words and phrases are repeated over and over.

It feels like the author just copied everything Hilary Duff has ever said in her entire life, pasted it together, and called it a book.

a chat audience
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gah!


Proof reading would be a great help.

Also. What was the point of the numerology chapter?

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was sort of obsessed with Hilary Duff as a child, which is why I read this when I was a kid. However, it turned out to be only all right. Not wretched, but not something I'd want to read again.

[Jennifer]

Again, read years ago when I was young.