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Melody Carlson has written more than 200 books for teens, women, and children. Before publishing, Melody traveled around the world, volunteered in teen ministry, taught preschool, raised two sons, and worked briefly in interior design and later in international adoption. "I think real-life experiences inspire the best fiction," she says. Her wide variety of books seems to prove this theory.

In Carlson's (the Diary of a Teenage Girl series) latest, which launches the On the Runway series, 18-year old narrator Erin, who loves being behind the camera, and her 19-year old sister, Paige, who shines in front of one, land a contract to star in a fashion-focused TV show. Erin both admires her stunning, smooth-talking, fashion-expert sister, and cringes at Paige's manipulations and thoughtlessness, which Paige has ample opportunity to exhibit when the show's producers plug them into a popular teen reality show. While trying to maintain a critical distance from the glamour, staged intrigue, and cattiness of this new world, Erin seeks a moral compass as she wrestles with her ex-boyfriend's reappearance, and wonders how to reconcile her Christian values with her work and how to be a good sister. Fast-paced action, driven by the social media of cell phones, Facebook, and Twitter, highlights both the thrills and stressors of modern teenage life, where the private becomes instantly public, and the line between reality and acting is hard to find. Available simultaneously: Catwalk. Ages 13–16. (June) Copyright 2010 Reed Business Information.