SEEING CINDERELLA by Jenny Lundquist

  Calliope (Callie) Meadow Anderson is the quintessential wallflower. By choice. She is content to fade into the background, play second-fiddle to her beautiful and clever best friend and her sole aim in life is to wade through the murky waters of middle-school without any ripples.

Her low self-esteem can also be attributed to the fact that she is far from happy with her appearance. A head full of frizzy red hair, freckles that have earned her the moniker of 'Polka Dot' and the possibility of nerd glasses for her poor vision do not make for a content seventh-grader.

But things are going to get interesting when her optometrist, the good Dr.Ingram, hands her a pair of super-geeky glasses. Suddenly she can read the thoughts of all the people around her. Yes, their hidden thoughts pop up on little screens near their heads and it's all there in blue and white for Callie to read. And digest. 

Does she want to know what people really think about her? Can she deal with her best friend's two-faced opinion about her? What does her crush actually think about her? Add to that, the varying opinions, fears and insecurities of all those around her and Callie's head is spinning. 

Middle-school just got a whole lot more challenging.
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I always have a soft spot for the girl who gets labelled *that weird one*. It breaks my heart to see a shy girl getting taken for a ride by her so-called friend. It makes me cringe to see the wallflower drooping as the object of her affections doesn't even know she exists. 

And so...it's heart-warming to see said weird girl come into her own. And shine. And no matter how old I grow, I am juvenile enough to root for the romance between the frizzy-haired girl and the puckishly cute boy who was always in the background.

The author adds a touch of much-needed gravity with the angle of Callie's broken home dynamics. Her equation with her parents and her perceptions about their attitudes mature with the story and Callie's journey towards self-discovery.

In conclusion, Seeing Cinderella is an endearing book. It has a wonderful premise, an interesting main-lead and a host of characters who provide her and the readers with enough fodder to make the book an engaging read.