And the first runner up is... When Dara Cohen was little, she was a bright, shiny star. She was the cutest seven-year-old who ever sang Ella Fitzgerald, and it was no wonder she was crowned Little Miss Maine.

That was then. Now Dara's seventeen and she's not so little anymore. So not little, that when her classmates find out about her illustrious resume, their jaws drop. That's just one of her many problems. Another is that her control-freak mom won't get off her case about anything. Yet the one that hurts the most is the family secret: Dara has an older sister her parents tried to erase from their lives.

When a disastrously misinterpreted English project lands her in the counselor's office--and her parents pull her out of school to save face--Dara realizes she has a decision to make. She can keep following the rules and being misunderstood, or she can finally reach out to the sister she's never met--a sister who lives on a collective goat farm in Massachusetts. Dara chooses B. What follows is a summer of revelations, some heartbreaking, some joyous; of friendship, romance, a local beauty pageant; and choices. And as autumn approaches, Dara finds she may have to let go of everything she's taken for granted in order to figure out who she really is, and what family really means.

"In a beautifully written coming-of-age story, first-time author Frazer shows how an overweight teen gets her groove back. At age seven, Dara Cohen tap-danced and sang her way to stardom, winning the title of Little Miss Maine. Now, at 17, Dara carries a lot of baggage, both around her hips and in her heart ('Here's what happened after the pageant: I got fat'). When her autobiographical English presentation about society's obsession with thinness is horribly misunderstood, Dara decides to seek out her estranged older sister, now living on a Massachusetts goat farm. Although spending a few months with her sister isn't quite what Dara imagines, it is a time of self-discovery. Readers will quickly become intrigued with the unraveling of family secrets and the cast of memorable characters Dara meets on the commune: Owen, a gay high school senior; Owen's sensitive younger brother, Milo; silent Belinda, the matriarch of the farm; and Dara's sister, Rachel, the only person who can answer questions about the girls' troubling family history. Dara emerges as a likable, complex heroine, whose growing self-confidence is touching and inspiring. Ages 12 — up. (July)" Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

In this powerful debut novel, a young woman who had won a beauty pageant as a child must now contend with her classmates after they find out about her past, her control-freak mother, and a family secret that comes to light.