Carrie Pilby

Teen Genius (and Hermit) Carrre Pilby’s To-Do List:

1. List 10 things you love (and DO THEM! ) 2. Join a club (and TALK TO PEOPLE! ) 3. Go on a date (with someone you actually LIKE! ) 4. Tell someone you care (your therapist DOESN’T COUNT! ) 5. Celebrate New Year’s (with OTHER PEOPLE! )

Seriously? Carrie would rather stay in bed than deal with the immoral, sex-obsessed hypocrites who seem to overrun her hometown, New York City. She’s sick of trying to be like everybody else. She isn’t! But when her own therapist gives her a five-point plan to change her social-outcast status, Carrie takes a hard look at herself—and agrees to try.

Suddenly the world doesn’t seem so bad. But is prodigy Carrie really going to dumb things down just to fit in? How far should a teen genius go to fit in?

About the author

Caren Lissner is an editor for a community newspaper chain in North Jersey, directly across the river from midtown Manhattan. She grew up in Freehold and Old Bridge, N.J., then majored in English at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Her essays have appeared in the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Weatherwise Magazine.