Most Popular Books by Dyan Sheldon

The best-selling author of CONFESSIONS OF A DRAMA QUEEN takes a smart, funny look at friendship, staying true to your identity, and moving on. (Ages 12 and up) Gracie and Savannah are best friends --and utterly unalike. Savannah is beautiful, outrageous, and irresistible to the opposite sex. Gracie is shy, smart, and would rather be studying lizards than meeting boys. Still, they’ve made a surprisingly great team, and (until now) it seemed as if nothing could come between them. But lately, Savannah’s talent for lying and manipulating is becoming harder to ignore. She’s fallen head over heels for an elusive college boy, and Gracie can’t help wondering: is her friend as confident as she seems? When Savannah gets between Gracie and her crush, the line separating best friend from worst friend is crossed.

Dyan Sheldon''s vain, melodramatic, and utterly lovable Lola will appeal to any young reader who has angled for acceptance. Mary Elizabeth Cep (or Lola, as she prefers to be called) longs to be in the spotlight. But when she moves to New Jersey with her family and becomes a student at Dellwood "Deadwood" High, Lola discovers that the role of resident drama queen is already filled--by the Born-to-Win, Born-to-Run-Everything Carla Santini. Carla has always gotten everything she wants-that is, until Lola comes along and snags the lead in the school play. Can Lola survive Carla''s attempts at retaliation? Will Lola and her best friend, Ella, find a way to crash their favorite band''s concert hall and farewell party in New York City--to which Carla has already gained entrance? And once the curtain goes up on the school play, which drama queen will take center stage?

Can chasing the wrong girl lead down the right path? Witty as ever, best-selling author Dyan Sheldon maps the agonizing distance between “like” and “love.” Josh has never really thought twice about girls before. He’s usually too busy watching old movies with his friends Sal and Carver, petitioning for more vegetarian options in the school cafeteria, or flailing in yoga class with his best friend, Ramona. But when new girl Jena Capistrano walks into school, Josh loses his heart faster than he’s ever lost his balance on a double downward dog. Not that he has any real aspirations, of course: he knows Jena is completely out of his league. And then, against all odds — they become friends. The closer they get, the more infatuated Josh becomes, and the more he wonders if just maybe Jena might like him back. There’s only one way to find out. But it’s not exactly easy to put your heart on the line.

If this first love is true love, why can’t Hildy hang out with her friends without feeling guilty? Dyan Sheldon takes on the possessive side of summer romance with humor and insight. Hildy has only had two-and-a-half dates in her whole life, and she isn’t counting the half. It’s starting to look as if she’s never going to have a third date, or be kissed, or know a boy who is more than just a friend. Then, on an ordinary day, she meets Connor of the melt-that-ice-cap smile — and a summer that was going to be ordinary as toast turns into Hildy’s summer of love. But love for Hildy is a little more complicated than the songs and movies have led her to believe. It’s not so much girl-meets-boy-and loses-her-heart as boy-meets-girl-and-loses-his-mind. Part cautionary tale and part romantic comedy, Dyan Sheldon’s wry, diary-style novel weighs in on all ends of the relationship scale in a story of first love.

In a new comedy from the best-selling author of CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE DRAMA QUEEN, two popular girls vie to out-green each other to snare a boy. Fashion-crazy Sicilee is a poster child for over-consumption. Her archrival, Maya, wears arty vintage clothes but hasn’t a clue what’s in the food she eats. So when drop-dead gorgeous new student Cody Lightfoot sets out to spread his eco-ways--and spur the Environmental Club toward an all-out Earth Day bash--Sicilee and Maya have their work cut out to attract his attention. What if Sicilee trades her fur boots for walking shoes (even if she can’t find the school when she’s not inside a car)? What if Maya dresses in plastic bottles and bags to preach in front of the supermarket (until security is called)? Or could it be that Cody isn’t all he’ s cracked up to be, and that saving the planet really is more important than impressing a boy? With her trademark quick-fire wit, Dyan Sheldon shows just what girls will do for love--and what earth-changing realizations they might have along the way.

Lola has plans to become a Broadway star until a movie starts filming in her hometown of Dellwood New Jersey.

Enthralled by her grandmother''s story of seeing and hearing whales singing in the sea long ago, Lilly hopes to see them herself and to hear their mysterious songs.

What happens when a bratty teenage star and a hardworking waitress get a taste of each other’s worlds? Featuring the best-selling Dyan Sheldon at her snarky, entertaining best. Paloma Rose is sixteen and already a major TV star. She has money, franchises, adoring fans — and an agent and parents who are dependent on her success to sustain their very comfortable lives. But all that could come to an end when Paloma becomes more famous for her bad behavior than for her acting and her show’s sponsors threaten to cancel the upcoming season if things don’t improve. Meanwhile, Paloma’s worried agent happens upon Oona Ginness working in a coffee shop. Maybe she’s not as tall or as blond as Paloma, but details aside, they really might be twins. So a plan is born: What if they send Paloma to a brat camp to become a better person and put the malleable and much nicer Oona in her place? Oona thinks it’s a stupid idea, but the money is hard to resist, given her family’s dire circumstances. What does she have to lose? Of course, plans don’t always work out the way they’re supposed to. . . .

Ella has no interest in running for class president at her suburban New Jersy high school, but her off-beat friend Lola tricks her into challenging the rich and overbearing Carla Santini in a less-than-friendly race.

When Angel and her mother move into a cottage on a cliff on Long Island, they find a ghost named BJ, who died during the ''50s, already lives there. Part one of two.

Sixteen-year-old Janet Bandry keeps a diary as she deals with an annoying family, school, a quirky best friend, and trying to find herself through vegetarianism, literature, romance, and her "Dark Phase."

The exchange of daughters that began in "Sophie Pitt-Turnbill Discovers America" continues in this companion about a bohemian Brooklyn teen, who crosses the pond to visit an uptight English family.

"Sheldon has lots of fun with mutual stereotypes and prejudices, not only about nationality but also about race and class...Hilarious." — Booklist The summer her mother announces that they won’t be taking their usual holiday in France, sixteen-year-old Sophie Pitt-Turnbull is aghast — so much so that when Mummy’s old art-school chum in New York suggests they trade daughters for the summer, Sophie feels her prayers have been answered. Unfortunately, there are a few details Mummy neglects to tell her. . . . Get ready for a comical case of culture clash as an uptight British teen finds herself deep in the heart of working-class Brooklyn — and finally dares to have an adventure worth writing home about.

When a king discovers that there are still singing moon dragons high up on the mountainside, he offers a room full of gold to anyone who can bring one to him. The beautiful dancing dragons only reveal themselves to Alina, a young peasant girl, but she preserves the secret of their whereabouts, knowing that there are some things far more precious than a room full of gold.

Though he always seems to forget something that he''s supposed to do, Jake surprises his mother by remembering something really important.

Chicken adopts a stray cat, Harry, who is actually an alien from the planet Arcana.

YA. Issues. A sharply observed, bittersweet tale of the trials of teenage pregnancy. Lana Spiggs is fed up with everyone telling her what to do. If it isn''t her mother nagging and shouting, it''s her teachers nagging and shouting. What Lana wants is to be grown-up. She wants her own flat, her own husband and her own children - and then no one will be able to boss her around any more. When Lana meets Les on her fifteenth birthday, she knows he is The One. And when she gets pregnant without even trying, she knows it''s her ticket to freedom - even though everyone else calls it a prison sentence. But can her dream of Happy Families stand up to reality?

Mike and her best friend Hope breathlessly await meeting the guys of their dreams and falling in love, but after Mike thinks that she has found the perfect boy there seems to be some question of whether he is her destiny.

The cookies are baked, the shopping done. The tree is up, the balls are hung. There are cards, and sweets and baubles bright. Everything''s ready for Christmas night. It''s Christmas Eve! Follow Dottie-small as she discovers the magic of Christmas in this timeless, enchanting picture book.

224 pp. Pub: 9/95. *****Angel is fed up with living in a haunted house. The resident ghost, infuriating and good-looking, BJ, has not grown less iritating with time. He criticizes Angel''s boyfriends, reads her diary, and likes her best friend. But as Angel digs into the past and discovers the truth about BJ''s death in 1959, she realizes that she misunderstood BJ, and that only she can help him find peace.

New York''s last eligible bachelor (worth having) plus a series of murders plus a serious search for love equals a weird and zany comic thriller from a bright talent. My Life as a Whale has already been sold to the movies. Sheldon is also the author of the children''s book The Whales'' Song.

Nine-year-old Adam''s obnoxious older brother Keith claims to be an alien from another galaxy and asks for Adam''s help because a spaceship is coming to take him back to his home planet.

During her first year in high school, Jenny finds out what true friends are when her best friend deserts her for the sake of belonging to a clique of pretty and popular girls.

It''s bad enough that Adam''s older brother, Keith, is an all-around athletic hero while Adam is always picked last for teams. But Keith also takes special pleasure in picking on Adam for being a weakling and a wimp. So when a group of bullies decides to rough up Adam and his best friend on a daily basis, Keith is the last person Adam is going to ask for help— even if it means standing up to the teenage terrorists all by himself. Dyan Sheldon''s fast-paced and funny sequel to MY BROTHER IS A VISITOR FROM ANOTHER PLANET holds more surprises than Adam—or Keith—can imagine.

After finding an arrowhead in her backyard, a young girl has a dream about the Indians who once lived in the same area.

Lizzie can''t wait to go shopping with her best friend Charley. When her strange neighbour, Mrs Moscos, warns them not to go into Happy Burger they don''t listen. One minute they''re looking at the menu the next they find themselves on another planet trying to thwart an alien invasion

No one else in Dan''s class believes him when he says that he has seen a unicorn, until his story captures their imaginations.

From Dyan Sheldon, author of the best-selling Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, two hilarious diaries in one satisfying volume! "The fast-paced, clever writing will keep teens eagerly reading and sharing passages with each other to the end." — Booklist "Funny dialogue and a wacky setting, while still delivering a smart story." — Kirkus Reviews With a Mad Cow for a mother, an eccentric psychotherapist for a father, and a dweeble for a brother, thank goodness sixteen-year-old Janet Foley Bandry can confide in her diary. After all, she needs someone to talk to about entering the Dark Phase of her life. With a year so full of Turmoil and Suffering, only a Creative and Artistic Soul (and one trusty diary) can keep Janet''s planet from spinning out of orbit!

Harry, the cat-like alien, accompanies Chicken and her family on a camping trip.

When a witch boards the bus at Paddington Station, wonderful, magical things happen to the tired and grumpy riders.

Lilly dreamt about whales. In her dreams she saw them, as large as mountains and bluer than the sky. In her dreams she heard them singing.

Enthralled by her grandmother''s story of seeing and hearing whales singing in the sea long ago, Lili hopes to see them herself and to hear their mysterious songs.