Sydney SalterCritiques

Chapter 11. Read the book for that alone. It had me in tears I was laughing so hard.

SWOON AT YOUR OWN RISK is a perfect warm weather read, filled with cute boys and a feisty heroine.

I wasn't sure if I would really connect with or like Polly, but I was a bit attached to her by the end of the novel. She was spunky, sarcastic, and witty! She begins the novel confused and prickly, but she really grows throughout the novel. She reminds me, in ways, of Veronica Mars: tough as nails, but really just a marshmallow on the inside.

I'm all for fluffy beach reads, so characterizing Swoon as such wouldn't really be insulting in my mind, but I must say that this novel is on a higher level than most beach reads. It has the cute boys and predictable love story, but Polly has more depth than many female leads in fluffy novels. The fact that Polly's main issue was the fear of being without at boyfriend and that she was constantly adopting the hobby of her current beau was extremely realistic - which made it even funnier and Polly all the more easy to relate to.

And oh my gosh: Xander. He was so unbelievably adorable. It was definitely obvious from the beginning of the novel that Xander is the perfect guy for Polly but in her confused and boy phobic state there would be a bit of a journey to her realization of this fact. I loved the tension and buildup to this point. Xander definitely joins the ranks of my favorite book boys! (Yay!)

I will definitely be reading MY BIG NOSE AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS, Salter's debut novel, sometime soon! I think I've found a new author to add to my favorites.

"tayo'y mga pinoy, tayo'y hindi kano.. wag kang mahihiya kung ang ilong mo ay pango!"

above are lyrics to a filipino folk song which basically says that filipinos shouldn't be ashamed of being snub-nosed. for a while back, i hated hearing this song because i felt it brought attention to my flat, pug nose in all it's glory. it's like when the heavens gave out nose cartilage, i was sleeping in. now the song just makes me smile. i've long grown to accept and love my nose just the way it is.

i saw this book at a bargain bookstore and i chuckled. i just had to read it. the story is about jory and what happens during the summer before her senior year. she's ok-looking except that her nose is too big that she calls it the super schnozz. to add insult to injury, her younger freshman brother is gorgeous, talented and is more popular in their school than she is. also, she feels that she doesn't meet her mother's standards - she's not pretty enough, she's not smart enough, too clumsy for sports.

i liked this book except for the fact that it's too boy-centric. jory has major self esteem issues and it seemed as if all she wanted to do was to snag a boy, any boy to feel good about herself. in the end she did learn to have confidence in herself. she realized that she can have a super schnozz and still be awesome just the way she is.

It’s the end of junior year, and summer is about to begin. The Summer of Passion, to be exact, when Jory Michaels plans to explore all the possibilities of the future--and, with any luck, score a boyfriend in the process. But Jory has a problem. A big problem. A curvy, honking, bumpy, problem in the form of her Super Schnozz, the one thing standing between Jory and happiness. And now, with the Summer of Passion stretched before her like an open road, she's determined for Super Schnozz to disappear. Jory takes a job delivering wedding cakes to save up for a nose job at the end of the summer; she even keeps a book filled with magazine cutouts of perfect noses to show the doctor. But nothing is ever easy for accident-prone Jory--and before she knows it, her Summer of Passion falls apart faster than the delivery van she crashes. In her hilarious and heartbreaking debut novel, Sydney Salter delivers a story about broadening your horizons, accepting yourself, and finding love right under your nose. From Amazon UK

This is such a brilliant book! I really loved it! Such a sweet novel! I really loved it!

Jory has two goals for the summer. Find her passion, and get a job so she can save her money for a nose job, so she can nab the gorgeous Tyler Briggs. Her passion goal is half-hearted, as that's what her friends are doing, but she is obsessed with the rest; nose jobs and Tyler - or any other cute guys who happen to be around at the time.

It's really quite sad how badly she thinks about her nose. She keeps a Nice Nose Notebook, where she keeps pictures of models with nice noses to show to the surgeon when she gets her nose job. Everything that goes wrong in her life, is down to her big nose. Her mother is constantly on a diet, and trying to get Jory to wear beauty enhancing make-up. It's just really sad.

But there is more to this book than just Jory's nose. There's friendship, family, and boy issues that go a lot deepers than a squabble and an unrequited crush. But they're all dealt with in such a brilliant way.

I don't know what else I can say about this book. So much goes on in it, and I don't want to spoil it. It really is a brilliant book, one that is right up there with my favourites! I absolutely loved it, and can't recommend it enough! I will definitely be checking out more of Sydney Salter's novels.

From Once Upon A Bookcase - YA book blog.

What a fun read! For Body Image & Self Perception Month, I have been reading some wonderful stories, but they have had heavy subjects that are sometimes difficult to read. My Big Nose and Other Natural Distasters was such a refreshing change. It has an important subject matter, but it is told in a fun and enjoyable voice that makes it impossible not to crack a smile.

It was easy for me to click with Jory. She is highly self conscious about her "Super Schnozz". She thinks that if it wasn't for her nose, her life would be perfect. I think we have all felt the same thing, in one way or the other. But it's not only that with Jory. She also feels just "average" in everything she does. She feels she has no talent that would stand out in a crowd. I know I have felt this way in the past, especially as a teen. Some of my favorite parts to read about were Jory's big blunders that happens when she is working. I felt terrible for her, but they were completely hilarious.

I couldn't stand Jory's mom and her friends. Jory definitely had a poor choice in friends. Her mom was the type that only cared about what the outside world saw. As long as the neighbors think everything is perfect, everything is okay. So for Jory's mom, her nose doesn't fit the cookie cutter image of perfection. I sympathized with Jory about her mom. You can't replace your mom, but I really wish she would have dumped those crappy friends! I was so happy when Gideon came into the picture. He is exactly the kind of person Jory needs in her life, and I was rooting for these two to get together.

I was really satisfied with the ending. By the end of the book, I was so proud of Jory for how far she came. My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters was a heartwarming story with a sense of humor. I loved Salter's charming writing style, and am looking forward to reading more from her.

Polly has a lot of Daddy issues in this book. She's looking for the attention her father doesn't give her from teenage boys. When Polly doesn't have a boyfriend she feels empty. Every time she gets a boyfriend she becomes who she thinks they want her to be. Whatever they're into, suddenly she's into. This leaves her doing many activities just to impress them. In turn, she loses herself and is only defined by who she's dating at the moment.

Unforunately I know a couple girls like this. Unsurprisingly, the relationships don't work out for Polly, resulting in a lot of ex boyfriends floating around. She gets to the point where she swears off all men in general. In doing this she's overlooking the one guy who's been aound the whole time and into what makes Polly....Polly. Will it be too late to still give this one a chance?

I'd say this one is worth a read. The whole book I found myself screaming at Polly to give this guy Xander a chance. It was a little frustrating when she just keeps resisting him when she know she wants him too. My question is why deny yourself something that you deserve??

I loved Salter’s debut novel, My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters, I kid you not. I bawled like a 5 year-old for some reason. I had a huge grin on my face that my mom had to stop and ask why I was happy. When I find a novel that good I stalk the author. Seriously I’m like a rabid dog that will not let go until the owner of said leg dies…or something (preferably the something).

Swoon at Your Own Risk doesn’t deliver the initial love I had. My expectation bar was high, but the jump was just a few notches down from the clear. I think for me the hardest part to read was Polly herself. She was just so easily persuaded. I felt too frustrated to even enjoy the novel completely. I wish her internal mind somehow connects to her external mouth, which eventually does happen….

Swoon at Your Own Risk plays of childhood friends grown apart but grew extremely hot somewhere in between those years. Yes prepare for some swooning of your own ladies. Okay I’m not going to bore with all those needless details; I liked the book, but didn’t love it. There were chapters I gobbled up like a chocolate and some I had to waddle through like thick molasses. Some characters I yearned for more and others I learned to appreciate with a few that I would have been fine to never have read.

Ahhh...summer romance. What joy.

Wait, what am I saying? Summer romance rarely ends well, especially when you can't decide who to be romantic about!

SWOON AT YOUR OWN RISK by Sydney Salter was a very cute and quite funny read. Following Polly (aka Pollywog) through her summer adventures in romance, this book gives us a cute tale that is both funny and at times a bit moving as well. Part of what makes this book such a good read is the format it's written in. From the first person point-of-view, it's very easy to follow Polly and see the sorts of shenanigans she gets herself into. From the first page, the reader gets hooked in her descriptions and inner turmoil. Whether she's staring at Sawyer, thinking about any of her other ex-boyfriends, or pondering the mysterious Xander, Polly's mind give us some vivid and colorful detail.

Have you ever had that experience where you read a story and think, "You know, it would be awesome to have these characters as friends." That was how I felt about SWOON AT YOUR OWN RISK. Polly was quirky and at times could probably be a cruddy friend, but you could tell she always cared. She's a character that you want to follow; one that makes your heart pull for her.

The plot of SWOON AT YOUR OWN RISK was robust and easy to follow. Polly has sworn off all boys after her latest disastrous relationship. With the unfortunate issue of having already accepted a summer job at the water park with the newest Ex as her boss, Polly's summer is looking to be pretty lame. Fortunately, being at a water park in the middle of a hot summer has its advantages. When Polly catches sight of Xander Cooper, shirtless and looking pretty stinking hot, her confusion flashes into overdrive. Wasn't this the same nerdy kid she went to elementary school with? Well, people change, and Polly is about to find out just how much.

If I were headed to the beach right now and had to pick one book that I could take with me, I would take SWOON AT YOUR OWN RISK. I dub this the perfect summer read, right up there with Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. It was funny, lighthearted, at times pretty emotional, and Salter really did an amazing job developing the main characters. Over time we get to peel back the layers of Polly and figure out who she really is. It's pretty amusing that Polly learns right along with us and this makes for some cute moments.

This is the first book by Sydney Salter I have read, but I can tell you that she has gained a new fan. As soon as I can sneak away with the plastic, I'll be grabbing her other books. Her writing style is clear, her characters are engaging, and overall she creates a story that sticks in the mind and has you turning back to read the book again as soon as you've finished it.

I LOVE LOVE LOVED Sydney Salter's My Big Nose and Other Natural Disasters so I just knew I had to give Swoon At Your Own Risk I try. Unfortunately this book didn't quite do it for me like her previous one did.

I think this is rare for me but I just didn't really like the main character Polly. She wasn't a bad person by any means but I don't know if she wasn't believable to me. I can't pinpoint it but I didn't really like her. Same goes for her mother and grandmother who were sort of absent in her life while still being around (and her father who actually was absent). I thought her little sister Grace was funny though, with her stuffed animal obsession.

And I thought the whole multiple ex-boyfriends plot would be funny but it turned out to be sort of annoying and unbelievable to me. I don't know why, but I can't believe that she had that many ex-boyfriends in that amount of time. Something was off. Same goes for all the minor characters (except for Xander). I just didn't like them. Polly's best friend Jane made me mad and all her wild co-workers at Wild Waves just didn't seem that like good of people to me.

But Xander, someone that Polly knew from childhood as the weird kid, blossoms into this handsome and confident young man. I loved this guy and how he was so sweet when Polly was hot and cold and yes and no (to quote Katy Perry). I kinda just wish he was falling for someone other than Polly. It sounds so mean when I say that but I honestly thought that while reading.

I'm not really sure how I could feel this way about Swoon when I so loved Big Nose but I do. Honestly it could just be me, be sure to check out some of the other reviews! I'll definitely be reading the author's future works though to see if maybe I can find some of that Big Nose magic again!½

Reviewed by Marta Morrison for TeensReadToo.com

Kat is very upset. Her family has decided to take a vacation to Mexico right during her best friend, Fiona's, mini-camp. This is social suicide in her junior high.

How Kat wants to stay home - but that is not to be.

She makes her family suffer with her comments and attitude. Once there, Kat and her little sister join a teen tour. She meets Nando, who is Mayan, and he tells them a story about a Mayan princess named Muluc. Muluc was abducted from her home and sent to Chichen Itza to be a slave. How she escaped sacrifice and slavery becomes Kat's and her sister's obsession.

I love the lesson Kat learns about friends and how you can sacrifice not only your life but also your self for others. About how you have to be yourself and not do things just because someone tells you to. For example, Kat's hair is short even though a longer style might be better, just because Fiona told everyone to cut their hair in matching styles.

The history of the Mayans and how some live today was fascinating. I liked the characters and their stories. I highly recommend JUNGLE CROSSING.

So I heard several different takes on this book. Was okay, was not that good, was amazing! I happen to be in the latter class. Sydney Salter made me laugh, cry, and smile throughout the entire process.

Jory was relatable in the sense that every teen has self-confidence issues. I know I do. So it was a relief to find one that a problem with herself that was not so outlandish. A nose. Simple, but effective. What she does she solve this problem made me cry my freaking eyes out. She has this entire notebook titled “Nice Nose Notebook”, an ideal process where after having a plastic surgery she’ll be more loved. Self-confidence issues. Every teens and/or adults have them. Unloved. A flaw.

Gideon was the comic relief. He made me laugh (out loud). Smile. Sigh. And cross my fingers that he and Jory will end up together. The perfect Yin to her Yang (cheesy I know), that helped her realize that she is fine the way she is.

The friends that Jory has were pitiful though at times. Non-empathic, selfish, and hateful. To be mindful of the different scenarios, the ups and downs of each of the girls lives, I will let it slide. Some parts are more touching then others.

Since this is an ARC, I decided not to say anything about the plot but to just reflect on what I read :), well ok I will not divulge too much info.

I absolutely love this book. The first two chapters wasn't all that and I got worried that I might give this a low rating but then grandma shows up, and then Polly she started enumerating her pathetic attempt into finding herslef in dating the wrong guys, and then another situation and then another and the next thing I know, I am reading quite profusely. It is not gag inducing sickly sweet and corny. No not at all. Do not let the title fool you. Despite Polly's poor relationship choices and flaws, I adore her. I like how she uses all the big words making all of her ex-ex-ex-ex-ex's really look dumb and insignificant. She have a lot of spirit despite the daddy issues, a barely there mom and a sexagenarian for a grandma who writes love advice. Polly reminds me of some part of me growing up, she find it hard to open up about her feelings (shoot I still do), finds it hard to say no to people and forgets the presence a best friend when a new boyfriend comes around (guilty! guilty!). Her wit and sacrasm is a very cackling combination.

The secondary characters are a hoot too. Sonnet and her gossip blog about current hook ups and break ups which mostly got mentions of Polly's name. Grandma Swoon who flirts and acts like a teenager. And oh my gosh, Xander Cooper, his mysterious skater boy demeanor is just too perfect as a YA fictional boyfriend.Oh and the tension between him and Polly, too cute and innocent.

Overall Swoon At Your Own Risk is a story about finding oneself, love, risk, family and friendship. Watch out for laugh out loud moments, unforgettable memories and scenes that will make you swoon.

Kat is a 13 year old who is horrified at her parents' decision to take her and her younger sister to the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico for summer vacation. It means she'll have to miss her "oh so popular" friend Fiona's summer mini camp. Fitting in is important to Kat, and she fears that missing out on the mini camp will threaten her position in Fiona's circle.

Kat starts her journey with an amusing, and somehow endearing, list of reasons why her parents shouldn't take her to Mexico, which includes terrorists and several varieties of germs. Kat has definite preconceptions of what Mexico has to offer, and the teenage Mayan tour guide, Nando, has his own preconceptions of American tourists.

As Kat tours Mayan temples and hears Nando's stories about Mayan culture, she learns about the role of sacrifice in Mayan culture. She also begins to look at the sacrifices she's made to remain in Fiona's circle. She faces the quintessential teenage dilemma of being herself versus fitting in with the "in" crowd. The novel presents a charming story with a wonderful message about challenging cultural stereotypes and classism, the true meaning of friendship, and finding the courage to be yourself. Highly recommended for preteens/ teens.

Reviewed by Grandma Bev for TeensReadToo.com

Jory Michaels is going to transform herself before school starts. This is going to be the Summer of Passion; the summer before senior year.

The big obstacle to making it perfect, of course, is her nose. Jory is obsessed about her big nose...she's just sure that the key to making her life perfect is getting it fixed. She plans to earn enough money for a nose job, then she will be one of the popular kids, and maybe attract the guy she has a mad crush on.

Everyone around Jory seems perfect. Her little brother, Finn, is a soccer star who managed to score a date to the senior prom when he was still a freshman. Her mom is perfectly proportioned and does everything right. Her dad is a workaholic and a great guy, and all her friends seem to know where they are going in life.

Jory finds a job delivering wedding cakes, and, oh boy....the van is a stick shift. Never mind that...she can learn quickly...she is sure that the stick shift and parallel parking will be a snap to figure out. But Jory is accident-prone and her hilarious escapades keep the action going.

Then, when her best friend begins hanging out with the guy that Jory has a crush on, emotions shift into high gear. Nothing turns out the way Jory plans.

MY BIG NOSE AND OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS is about learning to improve what you can and accept what you can't change, while still broadening your horizons. It's told with a great sense of humor, is a bit predictable, but still great fun. Teen girls will see themselves in Jory's desire to be prettier than she perceives herself. The characters are unique and likable, the dialogue witty and fresh, there is plenty of action to keep even reluctant readers interested, and it rushes to a very satisfying ending.

Title: My Big Nose & Other Natural Disasters Author: Sydney Salter Publisher: Graphia Number Of Pages: 345 Publication Date: April 6th,2009

Synopsis from back of book: “If I got this job, I could become a member of the Nice Nose Club in time for senior year. All I needed was approximately $5,000 and two weeks of initial recovery time…Super Schnozz would be defeated. One last sniffle, then bye-bye.”

WELCOME TO THE SUMMER OF PASSION. For seventeen-year-old Jory Michaels, that means three sun-and-fun-filled months of spending time with her best friends, obsessing over her crush, trying to find something she is passionate about, and…saving money for a nose job. Jory is determined to lose the big, honking, bumpy monstrosity she calls the Super Schnozz—one thing standing between her and happiness.

So accident-prone Jory takes a job delivering wedding cakes to save up for surgery; she even keeps a book filled with magazine cutouts of perfect noses to show the doctor. To find her passion, she tries yoga; she tries becoming a foreign film buff; but nothing is quite as interesting as finding a boyfriend. And that can’t happen until Super Schnozz disappears...right?

Jory is in for some big surprises when her passion finds her—and she discovers the beautiful people she longs to look like are not as perfect as they seem. In her hilarious and heartbreaking debut novel, Sydney Salter delivers a story about broadening your horizons, accepting yourself, and finding love right under your nose.

Review: My Big Nose & Other Natural Disasters is a great debut novel. I found myself either smiling, laughing, or upset. I really liked Jory, she was a likeable character but I found at times that she was just a tad bit too whiny. While, I really liked Jory I didn’t like her supposedly best friend Megan, she seemed like a backstabber from the beginning. Hannah her other best friend was funny, but I didn’t like her all that much. Gideon was a much better character and I found that he was hilarious.

The plot was interesting. Girl wants a new nose to fit into her “pretty” family. I wasn’t so sure about the beginning of the book. The middle of the book was interesting. But, the ending was perfect and made the book all the better. All in all, this was a great quick, light summer read.

I recommend this book if you like romance, feel good novels, and YA novels.

Jory Michaels has a problem.

A big, lumpy, ridiculous and embarrassing one -- and it's right on the edge of her face, there to greet each and every boy in Reno, Nevada who just may have paid an ounce of attention to her . . . if Super Schnozz wasn't constantly there to ruin her chances at popularity and happiness.

And ruin it all, it does -- Jory just can't seem to muster up enough self-confidence to keep up with gorgeous and well-proportioned best friends Megan and Hannah as the summer before their senior year at Reno High stretches before them, long and inviting. Jory decides that this summer will be one of "passion" as she finds work delivering local cakes and flowers and begins saving for a nose job. As she works to set aside the $5,000 or so she'll need, Jory fights to get of the shadows of her younger brother Finn, an Adonis-like soccer player and fiddler of girls' hearts. She's stuck, too, with her mother's whacky dieting and constant commenting on Jory's looks -- especially how she doesn't seem to resemble anyone else in their tanned, golden family. And then there's the little issue of trying to grab the attention of Tyler Briggs, her longtime crush who encourages her affections just enough to keep her from giving up on him completely.

And so Sydney Salter's My Big Nose And Other Natural Disasters goes: Jory laments Super Schnozz; Jory obsesses about not being as good-looking as her friends; Jory worries she'll die alone, the "world's oldest virgin" living in a hotel room and drinking herself to death. Jory crashes vans, trips over her own feet, breaks things and constantly drops things, usually in front of Gideon, the bewildering (and big-nosed) son of a cake shop client.

I felt like I'd fallen head-first into 350-ish pages of a teenage girl's obsessively insecure ramblings . . . oh, wait -- I did.

Now before you get the wrong idea about me, I'll say this -- I did like the book. Jory was a believable -- if not entirely likeable -- heroine, and I think many teen girls would appreciate and relate to her body image issues.

But while Salter is definitely a good writer who had no trouble getting in the mind of teens, my fundamental issue with the book was this: it was whiny. Oh, so very, very whiny. While we had the neat framework of the summer laid out as the timeline of the novel, I felt like Jory in her work van: driving aimlessly for hours on end, no particular path in mind. I just didn't feel like I was getting anywhere.

Yes, Jory seemed real -- but that's what also made her really frustrating. I had a hard time catching any snippet of her personality beyond what she claimed to like in order to fit in and be accepted. This was all part of the "coming-of-age" story, yes -- Jory's lack of an individual identity, the fact that she invested too much of herself in others . . . but I just really wanted something more.

This was such a fun book to read! It was absolutely charming/hilarious/authentic throughout the entire novel! Jory’s character was phenomenal. It’s easy to relate to her and her self-esteem/self-image issues, because honestly if it’s not your big nose, it’s your big ears, your big butt, maybe even your lack of certain assets! But whatever your insecurity is we all deal with it. Salter told Jory’s story though a uniquely hilarious and heartfelt way. It was nice to see Jory overcome her issues with her nose in a way that she nor I ever expected. There was an insane amount of layers in this novel, which I hadn’t expected at all. It was refreshing to read about a girl that wasn’t perfect, or thought she wasn’t perfect. My only complaints were Jory’s friends and mother. Talk about some of the most unsupportive friends in the universe! Wow, I would have kicked those girls to the curb. And Jory’s mother! Here honey, let me dab some more of this nose minimizing make-up on your face! Although, I think she had more of a problem with herself and it was projected onto Jory as a result. Overall, an awesome debut novel! (I kinda feel bad for poor Wooster Tom! I’m sure he wasn’t expecting giggling when he whipped out his manhood!)

My Big Nose and other natural disasters by Sydney Salter
(Young Adult)

Jory Michaels is entering summer vacation this year with plans. Really big plans! She plans on getting a job to save money, finding a boyfriend, possibly loosing her virginity and getting her “Super Schnozz “ as she like to call it ’fixed’. So she gets a job delivering cakes and flowers. So not the best ideas she has ever had. On her very first day she needs to have someone else show her how to drive a stick shift!

This book deals with many problems a lot of teens may experience, in a funny and fairly realistic way. Some of these issues include, self-image problems, homo-sexuality, loosing ones virginity just to name a few. For Jory, and probably for most teen girls it was a little more complicated since she was also basing her self image on her mother who was constantly dieting (I’m laughing at some of the very unusual diets this poor woman tried…the Cabbage soup diet?) and very unhappy with her own looks, which makes a big impact on her daughter.

I recommend this book very highly for any young girl over 15 and I really recommend this as reading for any mother of a young teen girl, as this can serve as an excellent cautionary tale about what you are teaching your daughters when you strive for perfection at any cost.

Oh my gosh did I have a good time reading this book! I couldn't get to the end fast enough! I think my favorite thing about this book was how many layers it had, for example not one potential love interest, or even two, but three! I mean yeah, I definitely knew who she would end up with but I liked having those few extra challenges for Jory to face! I like how the book mixed a fun summer, romance, learning about yourself, and body/self-esteem issues. It takes A LOT on and I think it does a pretty good job of balancing it all.

I love how we get to see Jory evolve over one summer and all the challenges she has to face. In particular I was really interested in reading about what could be considered a friendship betrayal, you'll have to read the book to see what I mean. I also loved seeing her accept others and realize it was ok to accept herself. This book was just great!

My only gripe with the book was that Jory made fun of herself, and particularly her nose a few too many times. Yes, I know that's part of the title etc but it just got to be a bit too much at times.

Overall a layered, humorous yet thoughtful look at finding yourself and being happy with what you see. I'd definitely recommend it!½