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Summary: An inspiring feel good novel
Review: 15yr old Elizabeth Clarry leads an eventful life. She lives with her busy mother, who leaves her notes for her on the fridge with helpful tips on how to cook their dinner, asks for her ideas regarding marketing items at the advertising agency for which she works. Her father has just announced that he will be spending a year in Australia, so that means being bounced to and fro between her parents. Her best friend, Celia has just run away (again!) to join the circus. So when her private school decides to link ties with the local public school through pen pals, Elizabeth finds herself telling her new pen pal, Christina everything that is going on in her life. Through correspondence these two get to know an awful lot about each other and forge strong ties. The book is told entirely in note and letter format, with Elizabeth receiving letters from various organisations, such as Teenage Romance, Amateur Detectives, Cold Hard Truth, People who are going to fail high school, Best Friends Club, etc, who endlessly point out her inadequacies and shortfalls. This is a cleverly funny and well written book, one that was enormous fun reading. I look forward to more books from Jaclyn Moriarty.
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Summary: "Feeling Sorry for Celia"Review
Review: Being Elizabeth Clarry is not easy when you have a friend that disspaears regularly, your parents are divorced, you mom asks you questions every morning for slogans such as "think of a slogan for raspberry flavored cat food", and your teachers are just crazy! In "Feeling Sorry For Celia" Elizabeth finds the joy of writing to a pen pal and learning lessons of how to be a good teenager. In her book she gets "imaginary" letters from such groups as the "Cold Hard Truth", "The Teenager Association" "The Students Who will most definetly fail high school" and "The runners that could be good if they just trained". She learns the lessons of love and friendship. In all letter format, this book was very easy to read and wa svery inspiring, hilarious, and was a definite keeper. I enjoyed this book very much!
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Summary: A book teenagers can totally relate to
Review: I recently finished reading Feeling Sorry for Celia. At first it seemed like it would be sorta boring, because the story is told in letters. But once I began to read, I found out that this was a book that I could completely relate to. It was as if I was writing my feelings, because I felt exactly like the main character. Besides that, this book made me laugh many times because of the ridiculous things that happen. I recommend to every teenager and adult who wants to have a good laugh :)
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book
Review: I thought that Feeling Sorry For Celia was a very entertaining book. It was very well written, and the characters were interesting. Elizabeth Clary is a 15 year old girl with a very odd life. Her mother communicates with her by writing letters, her best friend Celia is constantly running away, and her father doesn't want her to meet his new family. Could things get any worse? I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging.
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Summary: Awesome book!
Review: This is the awesomest book! It's all in letters and notes and it's so different it catches you right from the start. I loved all the associations, it's just so original. Elizabeth and Christina are just the kind of people I would love to meet. It honestly is the awesomest book, you'd be sorry if you miss it!
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Summary: Feeling Sorry for Celia
Review: Elizabeth is the best friend of the runaway hippie-bred Celia, the daughter of an eccentric divorced mother, and the definition of your straightforward Aussie school-girl. More importantly, she is on the mailing list of numerous "assocations" such as the Cold Hard Truth Association, who play a large part in animating her otherwise typical life actions. Christina is the newest addition to Elizabeth's life, and through their letters an unexpected friendship unravels, bringing belly laughs and watery eyes to the lucky reader. The entire content of this book is letters, notes, and other tidbits of correspondence - missing out on this amazingly witty book would be stupidly waving a most wonderful opportunity away!
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Summary: Great teen reading!!
Review: I picked this book as a school project to read with my mom. What a great pick! It is a fun book for anyone from teen years on. It's hard to put the book down. Just when you think you might have an idea about what is going on, the author throws you into a different direction. There are so many twists and turns in the plot that it feels like you are on a rollercoaster!! The letters from The Cold Hard Truth Association cracked me up! I highly recommend this book.I can't wait to read more from this author. Bravo!
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Summary: Fun Reading!!!
Review: Hello!!! Over Here!!! On the Message Board!!! It's me, who just read one of the coolest books ever!!! Anyone who has ever felt like the teenager from mars would understand and adore this book. I know I did. When she gets the letters from the teenagers association or whatever I just crack up. And the notes from her mom are really something, what a bizarre lady. Read this book, I garuntee you'll love it.
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Summary: Feeling sorry for Celia
Review: When a local public high school english class and a local private high school english class are assigned a pen pal project toone another Elizabeth and Christina meet and through the assignment become friends. Each already has a best friend who's hijinks create chaos in theor lives. The more they write, the more they reveal, the more their similarities show and they come full circle. About the book itself. It is entirely written in letters. There are no live conversations in the book. Because of this the reader is forced to both pay attention and use their comprehension skills in a way most books don't force them to. The other interesting quality is that in the year 2001 these kids are hand writing letters, not emailing like in Paula Danzinger's Snail Mail No More. Perhaps the most important part of the book is that these girls support each other and neither suffers from self degradation. They're happy (usually)and clever evn when their lives are at their craziest. Can you imagine a modern day YA novel that is uplifting, intelligent and fun? No wonder it is #1 in Australia---read it.
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Summary: A Sweet Treat
Review: 15 year old Elizabeth Clarry is not having a good first week of school. She has just learned that her dad, a pompous airline pilot, is moving back to Sydney after years of living in Canada. That wouldn't be so terrible, except he has moved to a really posh neighborhood and wants to make up for lost time by taking her out to trendy restaurants and acting like a boor. Her mother, a high powered advertising executive, is so busy rushing from meeting to meeting that she only has time to communicate via Post it notes left around their kitchen. Well, that and she sends Elizabeth faxes, trying to wring ideas for cat food campaigns out of her. The new English teacher at Elizabeth's school, aptly named Mr. Botherit, has come up a particularly deadly assignment. He has begun a pen-pal program between her class and a neighboring "tough" high school. And then there is Celia Buckley, as in Feeling Sorry for Celia. Elizabeth and Celia have been best friends for as long as they can remember. They have grown together from mud pies and make believe tree houses, to the world of crushes and teen angst. Elizabeth is the levelheaded, strong and independent one. She has the discipline to run everyday and cooks pretty much every meal for herself and her mother. Celia is the dreamer, the enchanting fairy like one who is always scheming. Both girls have been nurtured by Celia's delightfully dippy hippie mum who never discourages her flighty daughter. At the start of the novel, Celia has run away, joined a circus and is training to be tightrope walker. No, really. Elizabeth is left alone, wondering if she will ever see her best friend again, if she will make the track team, if she will ever get a boyfriend and be a "real" teenager. This thoroughly charming book isn't a novel in the strictest sense of the word. Instead, Feeling Sorry For Celia is a series of letters, notes and postcards. Many of these come from the imaginary organizations that plague Elizabeth's thoughts. These bizarre but hilariously right-on missives come from the likes of The Cold Hard Truth Society and The Association of Teenagers and are expressions of her inner worries and fears. The letters Elizabeth receives from Christina are very different. The girl from the wrong side of the tracks school that was picked to be Elizabeth's pen-pal, Christina is spunky, no nonsense and yet utterly compassionate and giving, the ideal best friend. Although they are both wary of each other at first, especially since Elizabeth attends private school, the girls soon bond. They share stories of their crazy families, adventures with dating and musings on their generally mixed up lives. They also send each other letters brimming with encouragement and the occasional stickers or Smarties (Australian M&Ms). With Christina's gentle guidance, Elizabeth begins to come to terms with Celia and the changes that are occurring in their friendship. Pretty good for two people who spend almost the entirety of the book never once meeting. Author Jaclyn Moriarty has a deft hand with characters; Christina, Elizabeth and Celia, though all quite different, are each authentic, touching sketches of teenage girls. Feeling Sorry For Celia has it all: anonymous love notes, co-ed slumber parties, a hottie track star named Saxon, liturgical dancing (whatever that may be), a James Bond inspired rescue plot. Although the denouement may seem a bit convoluted, readers who finish the book will be delighted by this bittersweet and lovely epistolary tale.
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