Book Description:
Livvie Peterson thought taking Interpersonal Communications her junior year would be an easy A. But when the first assignment is given, her world flips upside down. Here’s the deal: the class is assigned a six-week project and is split into three groups— Paparazzi, Tabloid, and Celebrities. The Paparazzi follow around the Celebrities taking pictures and grabbing any kind of quotes they can. The Celebrities try to navigate being tailed on a daily basis. And the Tabloid receives all the information collected by the Paparazzi and decides what makes the weekly summary report. Sounds harmless…and it’s all just pretend anyway, right?
Livvie is assigned as Paparazzi and when she is matched up with the über -cute Chas Montgomery as her Tabloid boss she’s pretty sure things couldn’t get much better. Livvie’s uncanny ability to capture the Celebrities in compromising photos matched with Chas’s skill of exaggerating captions and editing the photos make them an unstoppable team. And the long hours working side by side with Chas aren’t a bad bonus.
Livvie simultaneously launches an anonymous blog, leaking the class’ photos and stories on the Internet. Her rising follower number quickly becomes addicting and she possibly spills too much information online. Once she finds her own celebrity will she be able to give it back? And will Chas be gone before she ever has the chance to find out?
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First thing – I know it’s terrible to judge books by their covers, but I almost passed this one up due to the terribly unappealing cover.
I’m glad I still read it, though, since I ended up being thoroughly charmed by The Paparazzi Project. Reading this tale of a unique Paparazzi/Tabloid/Celebrity roleplay school assignment taken too far made me wish that I was one of the kids participating in it 
Now, why didn’t we get cool projects like this back then?!
I really liked Kristina Springer’s writing style too – it’s very light, funny and breezy, but not too flippant. And she managed to make her main character Livvie Peterson real and likable, even when Livvie was getting in way over her head as a paparazzi (in her quest to out-scoop her classmates), and started crossing some major TMZ red lines with her anonymous gossip blog.
For those who like a little romance in their stories, there is a touch of that here with Livvie and her tabloid partner Chas. But for me, the appeal in the book really was the school project and how it impacted Livvie and her classmates.
I really wouldn’t hesitate to recommend The Paparazzi Project to young readers. It’s a quick read, the characters are likable and it teaches some good lessons (without being preachy). It’s a fun change from the glut of uber violent, angsty YA books that are out.
(*One note though, I thought that the Interpersonal Communications teacher Mrs B was a terrible (or terribly written?) character, particularly about how she just washed her hands off the whole thing and didn’t take responsibility for her students in the end. I just wished that Ms Springer had written her to be better than a dead-beat teacher.)
The Paparazzi Project by Kristina Springer (Self-Pub) is available on Amazon and B&N.
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