Sidekick Short Review: Skin (2025) by Deborah Kelly

cover image of Skin by Deborah Kelly, published by Rhiza Edge, 2025.

The Basics

Page Length: 128

Audiobook Length: ~3 hours

Grade Reading Level: 6+

Target Audience Age: 12-17

Goodreads Score: 4.00 out of 5

Buy it HERE

Setting: Contemporary Australia

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Fiction

Topics: High School, Bullying, Courage, Friendship, Melanoma, Public Speaking

Plot: Lexie Collins is a 14-year-old girl living in Australia. She has a wonderful family, an awesome best friend, and what she believes is perfectly beautiful skin. She loves the beach, enjoys school, and most of all, loves public speaking. In fact, she recently won her school’s speech competition and is headed to the regional competition in the city.

But things begin to change when a new girl starts spending time with Lexie and her best friend. Lexie isn’t sure how she feels about her. The new girl can be aggressive and unkind, especially toward another student at school who has a severe skin condition. While Lexie is confident using her voice in front of a crowd, she hasn’t always found the courage to speak up for others.

Then everything changes when Lexie discovers a spot of melanoma—skin cancer—on her face. Terrified, she undergoes surgery to remove it, but the procedure leaves a noticeable scar across her face. Suddenly, Lexie begins to understand the pain and insecurity that can come with looking different. She starts to see the world, and the people around her, in a completely new way.

As her confidence fades, even public speaking becomes difficult. The bravery she once felt standing in front of others begins to disappear. Now Lexie must learn whether true courage comes from looking perfect—or from finding her voice, even when she feels different.

You might like this book if you like:

• Debate/speech teams

• Public speaking

• Advocacy/awareness projects

• Books like: Starfish, El Deafo, Wonder, A Face for Picasso, The Running Dream

• Shows like: Anne with an E, Atypical, Never Have I Ever, Heartstopper, My So-Called Life

• Movies like: Dumplin' (also a book), Soul Surfer, The Fundamentals of Caring, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (also a book), Eighth Grade

  
  

Other books written by this author: The Thing About Oliver

Teaching Skin in Class

Content

• Language: None

• Sex/Romance: None

• Violence/Scariness: A teenage girl is diagnosed with melanoma. She undergoes surgery to get it removed.

• Drinking/Smoking/Drugs: The main character is prescribed meds to deal with surgery pain

Book Talk Read Aloud Section

*What is a book talk? (Watch a how to video here. Read my blog post here)

If you have the physical book, read pages 1-5.

If you don't, there is currently no available reading sample, but on Amazon, there are pictures of pages 1-5 that act as a sample here.

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