Allyson Valentine

Allyson Valentine made her fiction debut with How (Not) to Find a Boyfriend, a contemporary school story published by Speak in 2013. Nora Fulbright is both a cheerleader and a gifted student, yet she has hidden her academic ability because she believes it complicates her social life. A plan to attract Adam, the new student she likes, soon requires her to confront the gap between the image she presents and the interests she actually values. Valentine gives the romantic premise a question about self-respect: success cannot mean much if Nora has to disguise the part of herself that earned it. The novel's humour comes from a strategy repeatedly producing unintended consequences, while its emotional movement depends on honesty with friends, classmates, and herself. Valentine earned an MFA in writing for children and young people from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has worked in several creative fields. That background informs a debut attentive to voice, performance, and the social roles teenagers learn to inhabit.