Noel, Alyson

views updated

Noel, Alyson

PERSONAL:

Born in CA; married. Hobbies and other interests: Reading, writing, traveling, eating, shopping.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Laguna Beach, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Author. Worked as a flight attendant.

WRITINGS:

YOUNG ADULT NOVELS, EXCEPT AS NOTED

Faking 19, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2005.

Art Geeks and Prom Queens, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2005.

Laguna Cove, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2006.

Kiss & Blog, St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2007.

Fly Me to the Moon (adult novel), St. Martin's Griffin (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

After reading her first Judy Blume novel as a young girl, Alyson Noel knew she too wanted to be a writer someday. Indeed, Noel's first three novels are geared towards teenage girls, and they are all loosely based on her experiences growing up in Orange County, California. She published her first novel for an adult audience, Fly Me to the Moon, in 2007.

Noel wrote her first teen novel, Faking 19, while working as a flight attendant for a major airline. The main character, Alex, is a senior in high school who is dangerously close to not graduating. Alex and her friend M. spend every weekend hanging out in L.A.'s trendy club scene. Eventually, Alex is forced to reevaluate her lifestyle, and take a good, hard look at who she is, what she plans to do after high school, and her friendship with M (who has been doing drugs). Noel's novel was described as "realistic and convincing," by School Library Journal contributor Erin Dennington, who later added that "readers will relate to both characters and their lives."

Following on the heels of Faking 19, Art Geeks and Prom Queens is about a sixteen-year-old girl who has just moved from New York City to Newport Beach, California, much to her dismay. Although Rio is not happy about the move at first, she eventually makes friends in her art class. Not long after, popular cheerleader Kristi takes her under her wing, and Rio quickly discards her new friends for the "sex-and-drugs popular scene," as Booklist contributor Gillian Engberg put it. After losing favor with Kristi, Rio takes revenge on her former friend and discovers the value of true friendship along the way. "This plot line is summarily predictable, but that doesn't make the ride any less enjoyable," commented Morgan Johnson-Doyle in her review of the book for School Library Journal.

In Noel's 2006 teen novel, Laguna Cove, the main character Anne (like the Art Geeks and Prom Queens character Rio) has also just moved to Southern California from the East Coast. Her new life in Laguna Beach is much different than her former life in Connecticut. Anne makes new friends that help her adjust, but she also has to contend with a schoolmate who is determined to prevent her from fitting in. Laguna Cove is a "compelling story of a new girl's adjustments," according to a Children's Bookwatch contributor.

Fly Me to the Moon, Noel's debut adult novel, is described by a reviewer for Publishers Weekly as "Sex and the City at 37,000 feet." The novel's main character, Hailey Lane, is a flight attendant with a penchant for writing. Lane is forced to change the direction of her life, after catching her live-in pilot boyfriend cheating on her. After a short period of mourning and with the support of her best friend, Clay, Lane decides to reenter the dating pool, take advantage of free flight passes and layovers in exotic destinations, and work on finishing her novel. Along the way she meets several different men, including wealthy Maxwell Dunne and literary agent Dane Richards, who returns her manuscript after she misplaces it on a flight on which he was a passenger. While some critics though that the plot is predictable, others found it to be an entertaining read. The book effectively uses "laugh-out-loud humor and realistic everyday situations," noted Romance Junkies reviewer Natasha Smith. "Alyson Noel produces a fun journey of self-discovery that shouldn't be missed," added Smith.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, October 1, 2005, Gillian Engberg, review of Art Geeks and Prom Queens, p. 50.

Children's Bookwatch, October, 2006, review of Laguna Cove, p. 16.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2006, review of Fly Me to the Moon, p. 1039.

Library Journal, December 1, 2006, Lisa Davis-Craig, review of Fly Me to the Moon, p. 113.

Publishers Weekly, October 30, 2006, review of Fly Me to the Moon, p. 38.

School Library Journal, September, 2005, Erin Dennington, review of Faking 19, p. 209; November, 2005, Morgan Johnson-Doyle, review of Art Geeks and Prom Queens, p. 144.