"Picture Imperfect" by Susan Thogerson Maas

About this book:

  “Twelve-year-old JJ loves three things: her great-grandma, her cat, and photography. But she’s never going to be a real photographer unless she gets better equipment. When her best friend, Kat, discovers a photo contest with the grand prize of a fancy digital camera—the kind JJ’s parents could never afford—she jumps at the chance to win it.
  Things start going wrong when ditzy Aunt Lissa moves in under mysterious circumstances and JJ’s forced to share her room. Why did Lissa lose her job anyway? Kat has all sorts of theories—theories that bring more trouble than the girls can imagine.
 Gram’s not doing so great, the cat’s always trying to sneak out, and Aunt Lissa’s ruining JJ’s summer. According to Gram, photography is JJ’s God-given talent, but how can that be true when everything keeps going wrong?”


Series: As of now, no.

Spiritual Content- Prayers; Many, many talks about & mentions of God, God-given talents, Him believing in us, Him watching, dreams, prayers; ‘H’s are capital when referring to God; Bible reading & Scriptures are read & thought over; Gram has a strong faith & talks about God; At first, JJ isn’t so sure that God believes in her (but later learns that He does); Going to Church & a funeral; Many mentions of Church, Heaven (and angels) & stained glass; Mentions of hymns; Mentions of those in the Bible & parables; A mention of Easter.

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘rats’, a form of ‘shut up’, two ‘crummy’s, and nine ‘stupid’s; A bit of Sarcasm; Anger, yelling & name calling (‘brat’ & ‘jerk’ are the highest it gets); Kat’s parents are divorced; Mentions of parents not being together; Mentions of killing & criminals (more joking than serious, not-detailed); A mention of a spanking;

           *Note: Kat has posters in her room of rock stars with studs & rings on their faces (It’s added that Kat wanted to get her eyebrows pierced, but her mom wouldn’t let her).

Sexual Content- a ‘hot’; JJ says she doesn’t have a clue about boys; Talks about & mentions of boyfriends; Lissa has a boyfriend & a mention of kissing sounds; A mention of Kat’s dad having a girlfriend; A mention of Brett’s first date;

           *Note: A mention of one cousin showing off her legs by wearing short shorts (16) and another cousin wearing makeup & talking about her boyfriend (13).

-Jada Jane “JJ” Monre, age 12
                                         1^st person P.O.V. of JJ
                                                        240 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating- 

{Add a ½ star for girls interested in photography.}

This might have been my first time reading this book, but it bought back many memories. I was JJ’s age when I became interested in photography, and 13 when I had saved enough for my DSLR camera. I so could relate to JJ in waiting/wanting a camera back then! ;)  “Picture Imperfect” was very cute, well written and had great Spiritual Content. Girls who love photography will really enjoy this one—even girls who aren’t interested in photography will like it, I bet. :)

See y’all on Friday with a new review!

*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.

*I received this book for free from the Author for this honest review.