Zindel, Lizabeth

views updated

Zindel, Lizabeth

Personal

Daughter of Paul Zindel (an author) and Bonnie Hildebrand (an author). Education: Wesleyan University, degree (English and theatre).

Addresses

Home and office—New York, NY.

Career

Author. Worked previously as assistant for Creative Artists Agency, Maverick Entertainment, and Maverick Records. Member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and Actors Studio.

Writings

Girl of the Moment, Viking Childrens Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Sidelights

Lizabeth Zindel, the daughter of playwright and children's book author Paul Zindel, explained on her home page that her parents are one of the reasons why she decided to write her first novel, Girl of the Moment. "I wanted to start realizing my own dreams," she explained on her home page. "Also, personally, I had lost my father a year before I started writing the book's beginning. He was a writer too, and I suppose I wanted to make him proud."

Geared for young adults, Girl of the Moment is drawn from Zindel's own experiences working in the Hollywood film industry. "I had so many internships growing up and I was entrenched in this Hollywood assistant world … and I wanted to explore it in fiction," she explained. The novel centers on Lily, a sixteen year old who gets caught up in the high-fashion world of Hollywood when she becomes the assistant to a young starlet. Critics remarked on Zindel's ability to keep her readers' attention by engaging them in a fast-paced plot. As a Kirkus Reviews contributor wrote, the author's "debut novel grows into an intriguing character study" of its main characters and serves as "a good first outing." In Publishers Weekly, a reviewer concluded of Girl of the Moment that "readers will breathlessly follow Lily to the satisfying conclusion."

Biographical and Critical Sources

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 2007, Debbie Carton, review of Girl of the Moment, p. 45.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2007, review of Girl of the Moment, p. 235.

Kliatt, March, 2007, Myra Marler, review of Girl of the Moment, p. 21.

Publishers Weekly, March 26, 2007, review of Girl of the Moment, p. 94; June 25, 2007, Sue Corbett, Kate Pavo, and James Bickers, "Flying Starts; Three Fresh Voices Make Their YA Debuts," p. 26.

School Library Journal, June, 2007, Jennifer Barnes, review of Girl of the Moment, p. 165.

Voice of Youth Advocates, April, 2007, Jenny Ingram and Rebecca Moreland, review of Girl of the Moment, p. 59.