Brenda the Great

Plain, overweight and friendless, 16-year-old Brenda Blatt is exiled by her parents to a bleak school for troubled girls. Despised by her new roommates and scorned by the headmistress, Brenda suddenly finds her life turning around when she is befriended by the prettiest girl in the school. She experiments with dating and discovers she has a first-class singing voice. Brenda is becoming an admired leader at the school, when an apparent double betrayal sends her reeling. Amid the hilarity, this rollicking novel explores the nature and power of friendship.