• Age: 11 to 15
• Grade: 6 to 10

Beauty's back-with a bound!

Liz and her best friend Alicia are determined: this year, no boys! It doesn't take long, though, before Liz falls off the wagon. She's irresistibly drawn to Kyle, and Kyle is drawn to Liz-dragged to her, actually, by Beauty Two, who is so glad to see her old friend that she starts to forget the finer points of her dog guide training. Kyle doesn't care. Every time he hears Liz's voice, he feels like he's flying.

But the reasons for Kyle and Liz to stay away from each other just keep piling up. Kyle's got a teacher with a grudge who's loading him down with work. Liz's parents think she's too young, and sneaking around behind their backs certainly doesn't make her feel mature. As for Beauty, she needs correction, or she'll be taken away; and that, Kyle just can't stand to think about. Whatever happens, he knows his future depends on having Beauty by his side.

The final book in the trilogy of Elizabeth and Beauty, her seeing eye dog, will have you in tears-of laughter and of pain.

• Conclusion to the Beauty trilogy
• Other two books in the series have received rave reviews and awards

Sylvia McNicoll wrote her first book, Blueberries and Whipped Cream, as a project for a college writing course in order to explore a tragedy that occurred in her own high school. She went on to teach creative writing at that same college for nine years, edit a parenting magazine for another eight years and write 29 more novels for a variety of age groups.
Most acclaimed are her three dog guide fostering stories: Bringing Up Beauty, Beauty Returns and A Different Kind of Beauty, which won and were nominated for many children's choice awards. Last Chance for Paris, her adventure book set on the ice fields of Columbia, explored ecological issues with glaciers before climate warming became a popular issue.
Her recent novel, Crush. Candy. Corpse, tells the story about a teen on trial for the manslaughter of an Alzheimer's patient. Reviewers and bloggers have declared it a must read for all high school students. In her thirtieth book Death Goes Viral, already a blockbuster hit in Norway, Sweden and Finland, Sylvia returns to the theme of life and death and the values our own mortality inspires in us.

Sylvia McNicoll's profile page

• Nominated, BC Stellar Book Award
• Winner, Hamiton Arts Award for Best YA Novel

Beauty Returns

Liz Kerr, heroine of Sylvia McNicoll’s Beauty series, still hates to give up the guide dogs she trains. This time, Canine Vision has given Liz a dog named Magic, who is being considered for the breeding program. This means that the dog could potentially stay with Liz’s family. As her relationship with the new dog develops, so does her relationship with Kyle, the 17-year-old who now owns Beauty, the guide dog which Liz has trained. Unfortunately, both sets of parents are against the new relationship. The conflict results in fatal consequences!

Liz has grown up in this final book in the Beauty series. She is in love with Kyle, an “older” man according to her family and friends. She is faced with some serious decisions about her behaviour. Will she continue to see Kyle despite her parents’ objections? Will she lie for Alicia?

The issues raised in this book are addressed with sensitivity and good humour. The two narrative voices bring high school experiences alive. Liz’s English teacher “belts out some of Willy Boy’s most famous lines” as she starts the Shakespeare unit. McNicoll manages to capture the teenage angst of Liz and the confusion and fear of Kyle as he faces his blindness and his uncertain future. How can we help but fall in love these characters one last time?

Beauty Returns (Beauty)

Beauty, the guide dog, forgets her training when she sees her old owner, and drags two teens into a relationship that neither can resist. A touching conclusion to the Beauty trilogy.