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Overview

From rags . . .
Laura Mellon has never met a fabric she couldn't soften or a stain she couldn't remove. She's tired of cleaning houses with her starry-eyed mom. But it's the only way she'll save enough $$$ for college.

To riches . . .

Willa Pogue can't enjoy being an heiress. She's too busy worrying about fitting in at Fenwick, her snooty new Connecticut boarding school. Then she meets Laura, her new maid. Laura's the spitting image of Willa!

Soon Laura is trading vacuums for Fenwick's ivy-covered campus, and Willa is sinking blissfully into the anonymity of the hired help. But then Laura begins to fall for preppy Caleb Blake, and Willa discovers a brandnew (and completely unacceptable for a Pogue) passion. Can the girls ever return to their old lives?

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About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780375849039
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/08/2008
Sold by:	Random House
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	406 KB
Age Range:	12 Years

About the Author

Jessica Wollman works as a television producer in New York, where she lives with her husband, the writer Daniel Ehrenhaft.

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Editorial Reviews

Wollman turns a potentially clichéd premise-two look-alike teens from dissimilar backgrounds trade places-into an entertaining and thoughtful novel. Laura has grown up helping her single mother clean houses, hating "having to stick her hands into other people's lives" and feeling invisible to her wealthy employers. Willa, who has just flunked out of the posh boarding school from which all her relatives graduated, is constantly being criticized by her oh-so-proper parents for her weight, dress and attitude and feels as though she is "simply leading the wrong life." When Laura and her mother are hired by Willa's parents to look after their mansion while they're away (sans daughter), the girls hatch a plan to switch lives. Studious Laura will pose as Willa at her new boarding school and Willa will live in the apartment Laura shares with her mother (who conveniently has taken an extended trip with her fiancé), assuming Laura's house-cleaning responsibilities. Laura blossoms at private school, impressing a history teacher who urges her to apply to a prestigious college and falling in love with a boy whose parents are friends of Willa's family. And in her new life, Willa finally gains confidence and discovers her true passion and skill as a car mechanic. Although the girls' ruse is ultimately uncovered, all ends happily for both. Despite some unlikely twists of plot, Wollman creates credible characters who should endear themselves to readers. Ages 12-up. (June)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Publishers Weekly

Gr 7 Up
Laura Mellon, 16, is smart. She graduated from high school early and is now earning money to go to college by helping her mother clean the mansions of Greenwich, CT. Willa Pogue, also 16, has been expelled from several boarding schools. One day, the teens discover that they are complete look-alikes. After their initial shock and subsequent bonding, they decide to switch lives. Laura goes off to Willa's snooty school and Willa stays in Greenwich to clean houses. In the first half of the book, the plot moves along enjoyably, and the dialogue between the two girls is strong, but once they take on the other's life, the story becomes boring. Their adventures are uninteresting, and Willa's parents' reaction to the switch is too understanding considering how uptight they were at the beginning. Also, there are several plot threads that aren't resolved, mainly the fact that Laura and Willa are identical and were born in the same hospital, on the same day. These coincidences usually mean some sort of scandal or dark family secret but the girls treat them indifferently. All of the parents are completely clueless and the rest of the supporting characters are paper thin. However, the author does manage a creative touch when Willa becomes a NASCAR fan and an ace mechanic. All in all, this take-off on The Prince and the Pauper is unexciting and unsatisfying.
—Anne RouyerCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Teenagers Laura and Willa are as different as their respective working class and privileged lives. Laura, scholastically bright and hardworking, shares a housecleaning business with her single mom. She longs to attend a high-ranking university, but is resigned to her affordable fate of a local public college. Willa, daughter of a high-society family, the Pogues, continually disappoints her weight-conscious mother and falls way below her father's academic expectations for a respectable place in the Ivy League environment. However, both girls share one factor: their appearance. When Laura is hired to clean the Pogue mansion, she's confronted by her look-alike, opposite and a modern-day "Prince and the Pauper" scenario results. Willa convinces Laura to change places and attend her boarding school for one semester while she moves in with Laura's new stepsister and cleans houses for the business. Wollman fleshes out both characters, giving each a separate identity with some serious soul-searching conflicts. Themes of self-worth, hard work and commitment are found in a pleasing story concluding, like most fairy tales, with each girl finding her true path in life. Predictable yet somewhat visionary in its finale. (Fiction. 10-14)

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