Flinn, Alex.
BEASTLY
New York : HarperTeen, c2007.
IL YA
ISBN 0060874163

(3 booktalks)

Kyle has it all.  Looks, money and popularity.  But perhaps he has too much.  He also has a very shallow personality.  He uses people and doesn't care.  He knows how to get by on his looks.  He learned that from his father who is a very well known newscaster.  Dad is so involved in his own life, that Kyle is pretty much left on his own.  When Kyle meets a new girl in school, he decides to pull a prank on her.  She is certainly no one that he would ever consider dating but he asks her to the big dance.  He's planning on dumping her in front of everyone at the dance.  But things go wrong.  The new girl just happens to be a witch and she changes him into a beast.  And now he is locked up, away from just about everyone and everything.  And trying to come to terms with his hideous new appearance.

Booktalk #2

Kyle Kingsbury is handsome, his daddy is rich and boy does he know it! He uses his looks and his daddy’s money to charm or buy his way out of any tight spot he gets himself into. Until the night of the big dance; Kyle knows he’s going to be elected as the King of the dance. He knows everybody wants to be seen with him or be with him. He’s also going with the hottest girl in school. Kyle is on top of the world, until he decides to play a trick on the “ugly” girl in school, Kendra to put her in her place. He tricks her to the dance and them dumps her. Kendra is a witch, and she soon places a curse on Kyle that will change everything. Suddenly, Kyle’s found himself in a situation that daddy’s money can’t get him out of.  (New Hampshire Isinglass Award Nominee, 2008-2009)

Booktalk #3

Beauty and the Beast gets a new twist in this retelling set in New York City. The being who used to be Kyle Kingsbury, tells his story from the beast’s point of view. Kyle was the guy in his 9th grade class with the perfect looks and lots of money with a mean streak, until he crossed the wrong person…a witch.

After his emotionally-distant father has determined that Kyle’s condition is irreversible by medical means, Kyle is isolated in an apartment. Kyle has been given a blind tutor and…a magic mirror.

(Read pages 149-152).

Beastly is dark, romantic and gothy and a satisfying reweaving of a familiar tale.  (Melissa Bowman, Melissa.Bowman@pisd.edu, Armstrong Middle School,  Lone Star Book Award nominee, 2008-2009)