Hollywood Nobody

Hollywood Nobody
Lisa Samson
Navpress
Colorado Springs, Colorado
978-1-60006-091-5
2007

Summary

Scotty is anything but your typical teenager. For started she doesn’t attend school and her mother does not home school her. She home schools herself, and gives herself projects. She lives in a beat up old Travo V with a rainbow painted on the side because she travels from film location to film location with her mom, Charley, who is a food stylist for the movies. Her mother has always had strange conversations over the phone, and here lately those conversations are more frequent. It worries Scotty, but she knows her mom will not talk about it.

Scotty’s best friends are Grampie and Grammie, a semi-retired couple who also travel in an RV, but a much nicer one. One of the reasons Scotty likes Grammie and Grampie so much is that they feed her steaks, pork chops, and cheese! Scotty’s mom is a vegan and won’t even allow cheese in the RV. Scotty is known around America as Hollywood Nobody, although America doesn’t know it is her.

Scotty’s newest location is Toledo Island in North Carolina where her favorite director, and sort of father figure, is filming a version of The Great Gatsby with a twist. Plus Scotty’s newest crush, Seth Haas, is the leading man. But reality has to barge in at some point. Seth sees Scotty as a little sister, since there is a four year age difference between the two of them. Seth also puts himself in charge of teaching Scotty her geometry. Scotty also takes the chance to talk to Seth about religion. Seth grew up in a Christian home, but is struggling. Scotty was raised with no religion, but has assigned herself a research topic on tent revivals since there is one taking place on Toledo Island.

As the weird phone calls are getting more and more frequent the only person Scotty has to turn to is Julie, a diner owner with past issues of her own. When a big man shows up and Charley freaks out completely, Scotty knows her wacky life has taken a turn for the worse. When the same man shows up while Scotty is studying lighthouses on a secluded island for a project and chases her off the island, Scotty demands answers from Charley. What Scotty learns turns everything she has ever known about herself upside down. With God’s help, and a new film location and a new RV, Scotty will learn to cope with this new information.

Impressions

Scotty is the type of character you want to cheer for because she takes life one bit at a time and does not complain. Much. Many teens think that living life on the road with no school worries would be the perfect life. Reading Hollywood Nobody should cure some of that desire. Even though the life Charley and Scotty live seems incredibly far-fetched at times there is a good reason for it, plus it makes for a great storyline and a way to meet interesting characters.

I love Scotty’s flair for the retro cats eyes glasses and her hunger to connect with someone, but on her own terms. She does not need a boy to fill the hole left by her absent father, and she does not feel like she is entitled to stuff because her life is so crazy. With her life it is easy to get in touch with bad influences and drugs. Scotty realizes what that can do to one’s body and refuses to indulge in drugs. Scotty is secure in who she is with the exception of wondering what has happened to her father.

This book is the first in a series of four Hollywood Nobody novels. It is a Christian novel, but readers will find that the book does not proselytize and should enjoy the fact that Scotty is exploring Christianity on her own terms and not blindly following a belief of her family.

Reviews

From TeenReads
Lisa Samson's fans will be amused and entertained with this fresh new series featuring Scotty Fitzgerald, a wise-beyond-her-years teen who writes an anonymous Hollywood Nobody blog based on her insider status as the daughter of a longtime movie set food designer. Scotty, short for Frances Scott Fitzgerald Dawn, has lived her entire life on the road in an antiquated RV that has been decorated hippie style. Her mom, Charley, a vegan who allows Scotty to drive without a license and pretty much homeschool herself, is strangely oblivious to the laws of the land but ever so conscientious about the ills of eating meat and dairy. (Cheese, Scotty's secret addiction, is a special sore point.) –Michele Howe

CCMMagazine.com
Thanks to her mom’s career, 15-year-old Scotty Dawn definitely knows her way around a film set. And while her life is anything but dull, she faces the same problems that most teens do, like figuring out who she is. Before long though, readers will get to know the real Scotty through her entertaining blog that namechecks almost as many celebs as the latest issue of US Weekly. And whether you’re a teen (or well past your teens), her struggles and triumphs will definitely entertain. CCMMagazine.com- Staff Writer