AT FACE VALUE

This enjoyable, if lightweight, adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac switches its genders and turns tragedy into comedy. High-school senior Cyrie Bergerac can’t wait to turn 18 and get a nose job. Meanwhile, she endures endless big-nose jokes, which she allows to define her, although she is also a willowy, high-achieving blonde, editor of the school newspaper and a tennis champ. Harboring a secret passion for Eddie Roxanninoff, she learns he is smitten with her beautiful, shy friend Leyla, who returns his feelings but fears she is too inarticulate to hold his interest. Soon, Cyrie is first editing, then writing Leyla’s emails to Rox and watching their epistolary romance blossom until Leyla discovers what she’s been up to. Although Cyrie struggles with social stigma and ethical issues, in this affluent, white suburban world, the only obstacles she faces are her nose and a defensiveness honed by years of nasty slurs from her peers. Franklin leaves readers to guess if Cyrie will choose plastic surgery or accept herself—as her friends and family do—exactly as she is. (Fiction. 12 & up)