April 1st 2020 by Capstone Editions
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus'
*Spoilers in Strengths and Weaknesses.*
Micah and her father move six miles across town, and Micah is conflicted. Things ended poorly with her friends at her old school, so she's eager to make a fresh start, but she also misses her old home and doesn't make friends easily. Luckily, there are other kids her age in the neighborhood, and she can walk to the nearby pool. She's struggling with knowing who she wants to be as she enters seventh grade, but figures that she has the summer to outline her new plans. Twins Luke and Megan are both friendly, but it's hard to hang out with both of them. Luke and the other boys in the neighborhood are willing to accept Micah as one of them, with her food stained t shirts and awesome sports skills. Megan, on the other hand, is more interested in boys as romantic objects, and she makes Micah feel unkempt and young. It doesn't help that Micah really does want to be more like Megan and her friends, and that she is starting to have some romantic feelings for boys. In addition to all of the typical tween angst, Micah has to deal with the death of her mother under very unfortunate circumstances.
Strengths: This has Judy Blume levels of pubescent worries, and so is great for readers of Barbara Dee's work or those who enjoy "embarrassing moment" articles in... well, tweens don't read magazines anymore, but they still seem to have a well developed sense of schadenfreude. Micah's struggles are all too recognizable; I certainly always made plans to completely redo myself, and they never worked out. The pool, the summer setting, the girl and boy drama, and the positive depiction of a girl who is good at sports are all very appealing. I even appreciated that Micah was dealing with the death of her mother.
Weaknesses: I wish that Micah had a bit more support in dealing with not only her mother's death, but also the aftermath and the effects on her life. She mentions going to counseling at school for a while, but clearly there was a lot more support that she needed, due to the fact that (highlight for spoiler)her mother committed suicide and she was told that it was an accident.
What I really think: I don't think I will purchase this, because the cover and the content are so drastically at odds. It's a pretty heavy duty read, but the cover makes it look very fun.
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