The New You

Abigail, a 13-year-old who has just moved to the city with her widowed father and new stepmother, has been through so many changes that she has completely lost her ""identity."" At her new school, she is lonely but standoffish (""She would wait to make friends until she had transformed herself into someone all these kids would want to know""). One day, after a class discussion about time travel, she thumbs through the Yellow Pages and discovers a listing for ""The New You"" under the heading ""Identities--Original & Replacement."" A visit to the address cited brings her to what is apparently a former hair salon now inhabited by three young women (including one named Gail, whom Abby can't take her eyes off). This trio is astounded when Omen, Gail's cat, takes an immediate shining to Abby, since the pet apparently ""hates"" everyone but its owner. Readers may suspect that this is, indeed, an omen. There are clues aplenty--some more subtle than others--as to exactly what is behind the fa ade of The New You and the identities of Abby's three new acquaintances. Leverich, author of the Best Enemies series, playfully scrambles time and place in this light fiction and raises some inventive questions about past--and future--identities. Although the plot hews to familiar conventions, it is executed well, and even reluctant readers will find that this tale passes in a flash. Ages 10-up. (Oct.)