Golden » (Unabridged, 6 CDs, 6 hours)

A Native Oklahoman, Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a senior at Yale University. She wrote Golden at the age of 19, and her second novel, Tattoo, is due out in 2007. She lives and writes in New Haven, Connecticut.

When Lissy James moves from California to Oklahoma, she finds herself in the middle of a teenage nightmare: a social scene to rival a Hollywood movie. And as if understanding the hierarchy of the Goldens vs. the Nons isn’t hard enough, Lissy’s ever-growing Aura Vision is getting harder and harder to hide. If she’s not careful, she’s going to become a Non faster than you can say “freak.”

But it’s becoming clear that Emory High has a few secrets of its own. Around the halls, the term “special powers” goes way beyond one’s ability to attract the opposite sex, and there may be something more evil than the A-crowd lurking in the classrooms. Lissy can see a lot more than the average girl, but she’s about to learn the hard way that things aren’t always as they appear and you can’t always judge a girl by her lip gloss.

Publishers Weekly

Fifteen-year-old Felicity Shannon James ("Lissy") is upset with her family's decision to move from her beloved California to a small town in Oklahoma. It seems that the Sight ("an ability to see what others could not") prevents Lissy from having a normal life. All the women in her mother's family have some version of the Sight. Lissy's gift (which she hates) allows her to see auras, the "small moving quantity of colored light" that surrounds a person. On her first day at her new school, things don't go as smoothly as she'd hoped. When Lissy meets wonderful, handsome Mr. Kissler, the math teacher, she becomes physically ill. Mr. Kissler's aura has no color-he's Garn, which means that he has done something horrible, such as committed murder. What has he done? Are the students in danger? A recurring dream and a visitation from the First Seer give Lissy clues that help her unlock Kissler's secret. First-time author Barnes's upbeat yet haunting novel about being the new kid in school will likely grab readers with its clever, original twist. Ages 12-up. (July) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.