num_pages: 288
description: In this semi-autobiographical debut novel set in 1983 Vanessa Martin's real-life reality of living with family in public housing in Newark New Jersey is a far cry from the glamorous Miss America stage. She struggles with an incarcerated mother she barely remembers a grandfather dealing with addiction and her own battle with self-confidence. But when a new teacher at school coordinates a beauty pageant and convinces Vanessa to enter Vanessa's view of her own world begins to change. Vanessa discovers that her own self-worth is more than the scores of her talent performance and her interview answers and that she doesn't need a crown to be comfortable in her own skin and see her own true beauty.
language: English
title: Like Vanessa
publisher: Charlesbridge