Make Me Over: Eleven Stories of Transformation

by Marilyn Singer

A thought provoking approach to a current culture of readily available plastic surgery, makeovers and underlying obsession with beauty, 11 stories delve into the theory, truth, and even occasional humorous side to fascination with reinventing oneself from the outside in.

Genres: Short Stories, Young Adult

272 pages, Hardcover

First published September 22, 2005

About the author

Marilyn Singer was born in the Bronx (New York City) on October 3, 1948 and lived most of her early life in N. Massapequa (Long Island), NY. She attended Queens College, City University of New York, and for her junior year, Reading University, England. She holds a B.A. in English from Queens and an M.A. in Communications from New York University.

In 1974, after teaching English in New York City high schools for several years, she began to write - initially film notes, catalogues, teacher's guides and film strips. Then, one day, when she was sitting in the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, she penned a story featuring talking insect characters she'd made up when she was eight. Encouraged by the responses she got, she wrote more stories and in 1976 her first book, The Dog Who Insisted He Wasn't, was published by E.P.Dutton & Co.

Since then, Marilyn has published over seventy books for children and young adults. Her genres are many and varied, including realistic novels, fantasies, non-fiction, fairy tales, picture books, mysteries and poetry. She likes writing many different kinds of books because it's challenging and it keeps her from getting bored. She has won several Children's Choice and Parents' Choice Awards, as well as the following: the Creature Carnival, Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book, 2005; I Believe in Water: Twelve Brushes with Religion, New York Public Library's "Best Books for the Teen Age," 2001; Stay True: Short Stories for Strong Girls, Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults, 2000 (YALSA); On the Same Day in March, Booklist's Top Ten Science Books of 2000; NCSS-CBC Notable Book, 2000; Deal with a Ghost, finalist, YA category, Edgar Award, 1998; It Can't Hurt Forever, Maud Hart Lovelace Award, 1983; The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth, ALA Best Book for Young Adults, 1983; Turtle in July, NCTE Notable, N.Y.Times Best Illustrated and Time Magazine Best Children's Books of 1989; Turtle in July was also a Reading Rainbow review book.

Marilyn currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband Steve; their standard poodle Oggi, a cousin of their beloved and recently departed poodle Easy, seen in the home page photo; a cat named August ; two collared doves named Jubilee and Holiday; and a starling named Darling. Her interests include dog training, reading, hiking, bird-watching, gardening, meditation, playing computer adventure games and going to the movies and the theatre. She's also a major Star Trek fan.

Reviews

[Madelyn Schrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the book expicaly the thrid story with th eblind girl and th eone where cara get sher hair done!!!!

[Katie Fitzgerald]

Read Honestly Truthfully by Terry Trueman on 11/5/12.

"Honestly, Truthfully" by Terry Trueman is a story about a makeover, from a collection of YA stories called Make Me Over. The story’s main character, Kyle, decides that he tells too many lies and begins making himself over into the most truthful guy he can be, meaning he will tell the whole truth to everyone, about everything. In the course of just one day, he tells people exactly how he’s feeling, insists that his teacher use more familiar (and somewhat more disgusting) terms for female anatomy, and tells a girl exactly how her breasts look right in front of her boyfriend. The consequences of this are what a logical person might expect, except for the story’s weird ending.

Trueman’s exploration of complete honesty versus the need for white lies in order to get along in the world is interesting, even if the story is perhaps more sexually charged than I would have preferred. Kyle’s voice is strong, and reminds me a lot of the charming, appealing voice of Gary Paulsen’s Kevin Spencer, who himself is a very good liar. Kyle very accurately represents what I think is a very universal teenage desire for the truth, and his quest for it makes a nice cautionary tale for kids who might be tempted to try their own exercises in brutal, unbridled truth telling.

I don’t think the concept for this story is particularly new, especially since Jim Carrey did that movie in the late 90s about the idea of living without telling any lies, but it is nice to have such a masculine teen point of view represented in the conversation. I’m not sure what the ultimate moral of the story really is, since things take such a dramatically strange turn at the end of it, but the questions Kyle’s behavior raises are enough to get kids thinking about the concept of truth, which is what makes the story succeed, in my opinion.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the first story the best, with Maurice.

[Jenna Zarzycki · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories - about young adults changing/finding themselves. These young adults transform themselves in ways no one quite expects.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the stories. They're great. Thumbs up for this book!

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

The stories appear to be written for sixth-graders by hired guns. And while there is plenty to say about the content...the cover also deserves a special circle of Hell of its own.

[Leeann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical anthology.. you get some good and some crappy works. But I read this with the hope of learning to write my own short stories. Having bad and good stories in one place helped me out a lot.