February 13, 2017
Before Gracie Grant was born, her older sister, Bret, was killed in an auto accident. As a result, Gracie’s parents do everything in their power to make sure that Gracie, now 13, is never anything less than happy, a hard standard for Gracie to live up to. Whether at home or at school, Gracie insists that everything is fine, even when it isn’t. Her social world gets complicated when she develops a crush on classmate AJ, who has a crush on Gracie’s best friend Sienna. Gracie helps Sienna send AJ flirty text messages à la Cyrano de Bergerac, and the results create even more drama. Luckily Gracie has Emmett, her other best friend, but then things get complicated with him, too. Vail (Unfriended) skillfully details the politics of middle school, mean girls, first dates, and best friends in this sensitive and funny coming-of-age story. But it’s the storyline revolving around Gracie’s sister and her parents—and the resulting reflection on grief and the risks of loving another person—that leads to the story’s most profound and memorable moments. Ages 11–up. Agent: Amy Berkower, Writers House.
November 15, 2016
What if Cyrano were an eighth-grade girl in the 21st century?Gracie Grant has a crush on popular AJ Rojanasopondist, but AJ likes Gracie's best gal pal, Sienna Reyes. Gracie is a bit jealous upon hearing this news but soon decides sweet and adorable Sienna should be with AJ. The problem: Sienna is so unsure of what to text AJ, Gracie ends up doing it for her. As it turns out, text-AJ has a great sense of humor, one that is oddly absent in real life and is suspiciously like that of Gracie's best guy friend, Emmett Barnaby. Who is really on the other end of the texts? Gracie is fabulously sarcastic and a little neurotic, her first-person narrative thoughts pinging and ponging across the pages. Gracie's world is inhabited by a diverse group: Emmett is half-Filipino, half-Israeli; light-brown-skinned Latina Sienna speaks fluent Spanish; Gracie's classmates are "every combination of race and size," although Gracie herself is evidently white; and the school has a gender-neutral restroom. The sensitive subplot concerning Gracie's deceased older sister weaves in and out of the main plot, never overshadowing it but enhancing it with sincere emotion until the concluding chapters pull everything together. Hilarious and heartfelt. (Fiction. 12-15)
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December 1, 2016
Gr 5-8-A modern, multicultural version of Cyrano de Bergerac. Gracie Grant, a tall eighth grader who has a prominent nose and hails from New York City, takes the lead as the Cyrano stand-in. Gracie's best friend, Sienna Reyes, needs help texting the boy who likes her, the handsome AJ Rojanasopondist. Unbeknownst to Gracie and Sienna, AJ gets help in responding to the texts from the witty but vertically challenged Emmett Barnaby. In addition, Gracie is coming to terms with the lifelong effects of losing a sibling. Bret, her sister, died in an accident before Gracie was born. Gracie's parents are understandably a bit overprotective, and she often wonders how her life would be different if Bret had lived. She is also facing the standard middle school angst: Is she pretty enough? Why isn't she as popular as other kids? Will a boy ever like her? The protagonist and her friends represent a variety of middle schoolers: a mean girl, a bullied kid, a sporty kid, a smart kid, the popular group, and outsiders. Yet Vail's portrayals prevent the characters from being mere stereotypes. Even Gracie's parents are fully formed, not the typically clueless adults who populate many books for kids. Readers will see themselves in Gracie and her friends, root for them, and likely figure out who is actually texting whom before the characters do, even if they haven't read the source material. VERDICT This tween romance proves that some stories stand the test of time, even with modernization.-Cindy Wall, Southington Library & Museum, CT
Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
January 1, 2017
As eighth grade comes to a close and her fourteenth birthday approaches, Gracie Grant discovers she has a problem. Out of the blue, Gracie realizes she like-likes longtime and suddenly very attractive classmate AJ Rojanasopondist. But that's not the problem. AJ like-likes someone, as well--Gracie's best friend, Sienna. Despite nursing a mild heartache, Gracie sincerely tries to be happy for her bestie, so much so that when Sienna panics about what to say to AJ in a text, Gracie helps compose it for her. Then she writes anotherand another, until eventually Sienna hands over her phone, and all texting of AJ, to Gracie. As their correspondence unfolds, Gracie is surprised by AJ's sense of humor, which feels oddly familiar--kind of like Gracie's close friend Emmett. Guilt over playing Cyrano to Sienna's Christian, exacerbated by complex family dynamics (Gracie's sister died as a young child) and Gracie's tendency to overthink things, makes her prone to brief but intense emotional outbursts and moments of painful awkwardness in nearly all of her relationships. Gracie's breakneck narration is presented in and out of text messages, folding in an effortlessly diverse cast, including Latina Sienna and Filipino-Israeli Emmett. Through her protagonist's rollicking commentary, Vail captures the anguish and hilarity at the heart of middle school. anastasia m. collins
(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)