Sweet 16 [Hardcover]

Kate Brian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2006

• ELITE GUEST LIST

• VERA WANG GOWN W/MATCHING JIMMY CHOOS

• CHARMING TUXEDO-CLAD BOYFRIEND

• VELVET ROPE

Teagan Phillips's sweet sixteen is the event of the season. Other parties have been chill, sure, but no one at Rosewood Prep throws a bash as extravagant, exclusive, or over-the-top expensive as Teagan. No one is as obnoxious, either. But that doesn't stop everyone from wanting to see and be seen at her birthday.

Luckily, Teagan's in for a rude (and rather ungraceful) awakening. On the big night she falls stilettos-over-tiara into the country club wine cellar and blacks out. When she comes to, there is a strange woman standing at the foot of the stairs.

No, Teagan, this mystery woman is not one of "the help." She is here to take you on a ride, to bring you back through time and show you some very unpretty realities. And if you're lucky, she just might put the sweet back in sixteen....

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–Teagan Phillips is throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars into a Sweet 16 party that she has been planning for a year. When she falls down the cellar stairs in search of some wine after she learns that her father canceled the open bar, she appears to have died. She is witness to her present, past, and future, but instead of three ghosts à la A Christmas Carol, Teagan has just one enigmatic female guide. She sees herself dispose of her relationship with Dad after her mother's death. She sees the plight of the waitress she fired. She also learns that her best friend and her boyfriend are secretly seeing one another. The figure in white turns out to be the future Teagan, who has died alone and unloved after obsessively repeated cosmetic surgery. In the inevitable reversal, she gets another chance; and, like Scrooge bestowing gifts on Bob Cratchit's family, she gives away her birthday loot to the poor. She bridges the gap with her father and reunites with the childhood friend whom she had dropped. Like a morality play, this one's all message and stock characters. This haute-couture name-dropping, prep-school princess makes for a totally unlikable character who alienates discerning readers too much for her redemption to work.–Suzanne Gordon, Richards Middle School, Lawrenceville, GA
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About the Author

Kate Brian is the author of the NY Times and USA Today best-selling Private series and it's spin-off series, Privilege. She has also written many other books for teens including Sweet 16 and Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers (February 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416900322
• ISBN-13: 978-1416900320
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,934,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am a total Jersey girl. I grew up in Bergen County, went to Rutgers University, lived in Hoboken for a year (requisite post-college party time) and then moved back to Bergen, got married, and bought a house ten minutes from where I grew up. I graduated from Rutgers with a double major in English and Journalism, worked as an Editor for four years, then decided I liked writing better and struck out on my own. You've been reading my books ever since!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing novel that will truly give readers a better outlook on life - and how they are viewed by others..., March 24, 2006

By 

Erika Sorocco (Southern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sweet 16 (Hardcover)

Teagan Phillips may be known as the epitome of the perfect girl. However, she is also viewed by her classmates and neighbors as being not only obnoxiously rich, but obnoxiously pretty, fashionable, and smart. And this year, Teagan's obnoxious level is only going to increase, thanks to the fact that she is turning 16, and planning a Sweet 16 party that will blow every other Sweet 16 party out of the water, and make her the most talked-about girl for years to come. As the night of Teagan's Sweet 16 approaches, nothing works out for the Princess. And, within a short amount of time, a series of unfortunate events - spilled food, no alcohol, matching dresses, identical shoes, backstabbing friends, and more - take place, leading Teagan on a hunt for booze that leaves her lying on the concrete floor of a wine cellar - out cold. When she finally awakens, Teagan finds herself face to face with a strange woman. A strange woman who possesses a slew of powers, that take the spoiled, ungrateful, nasty Teagan back in time, to when she was the innocent little girl who was the apple of her father, and - deceased - mother's eye. A time before her father started ignoring her, by throwing himself into his work. It is during this time that Teagan must truly observe the error of her ways, and make a huge change - one that should have been made much sooner than this Sweet 16.

Kate Brian is one of the most imaginative teen fiction writers out there at the moment; and her imagination truly flourishes within the pages of her newest novel SWEET 16. SWEET 16 combines the elements of MTV's hit TV show MY SUPER SWEET 16, with Charles Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL, in an attempt to create a magical tale of adventure and gossip, that takes one very ungrateful teenage girl on the thrill ride of her life. Teagan is the girl you love to hate, whose life seems picture-perfect and fabulous by outward appearances, but is truly unstable - at least according to her - once you penetrate the bubble. Her attitude will make readers want to hate her, but the sadness she experiences each day of her life, in memories of her mother, truly make you want to embrace her. Kate Brian has created an extremely enjoyable, heartfelt novel, that leaves room for a sequel; and, with the outcome of SWEET 16, readers will be more than happy to read more of Teagan's story in the future. An amazing novel that will truly give readers a better outlook on life - and how they are viewed by others.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Its really good and pretty funny!, March 17, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Sweet 16 (Hardcover)

Im more than half way through it, but so far its really good. Its about Teagan Phillips, a bratty, snobby, and obnoxious teenage girl who is turning 16. Her whole day goes wrong and so does her party of a lifetime. She ends up in the Storage Cellar and ends up with some strange woman. She then relizes her and the strange woman are ghosts. The woman takes her throughout her past present and future, and relizes- Why does she act like such a snob? The woman gives her a reality check and Teagan takes a new outlook on life and makes some changes. I love it!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Point, June 22, 2006

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Sweet 16 (Hardcover)

Teagen Phillips is a rich teenager that thinks that this will be the best party of the century. But what Teagan finds out is not what she expects! When trying to get wine from a cellar after she found out that her dad cancelled all alcohol from her party, she falls down the stairs and she is dead. When a strange woman in white appears above teagan when she is awoken she gets to look at few things she wasn't expecting. She finds out that her best friend and her boyfriend were secretly making love behind her back,and she is forced to find out what her future holds.When Teagen finds out what her future holds she is given a second chance to change things before she experiances an early death from cosmetic surgery. And her life was coming better by the time she awoken!