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SIMON PULSE

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons,

living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

WHERE BEAUTY LIVES

SIMON PULSE

An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

Copyright © 2006 by Alloy Entertainment and Kieran Viola

Where I come from everything is gray. The bland, square strip

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malls. The water in the lake at the center of town. Even the sunlight in whole or in part in any form.

has a murky quality. We barely get spring and we never get autumn.

SIMON PULSE and colophon are registered trademarks of

The leaves fall off the sickly trees early each September before they Simon & Schuster, Inc.

even have a chance to change, tumbling down on the shingled roofs Produced by Alloy Entertainment

of the standard-issue houses, each one exactly the same as the last.

151 West 26th Street, New York, NY 10001

If you want to see beauty in Croton, Pennsylvania, you’ve got to Cover design by Julian Peploe

sit in your ten-by-ten bedroom in your boring split-level house Book design by Amy Trombat

and close your eyes. You have to use your imagination. Some girls The text of this book was set in Filosofia.