From the Publisher
This vivid first-person narrative revolves around the well-drawn main character. Bigelow portrays many characters with empathy and skill. A heartfelt novel of family, friends, and change.” — ALA Booklist (starred review)
“Warm and memorable.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Bigelow celebrates intersectional diversity with her cast of well-drawn characters. Through a relatable first-person narrative, she also addresses universal conflicts adolescents face while paying tribute to their individuality.” — Publishers Weekly
"Readers will find [Hazel's] sensitive, reflective nature heartening." — School Library Journal
Praise for Drum Roll, Please: “Bigelow artfully captures the complexity of middle-school relationships and, with a gentle hand, delivers a mighty message to turn up the volume on your inner drumbeat.” — Ami Polonsky, author of Gracefully Grayson and Threads
“Both fun and substantial, readable and empowering, this novel is a master class in balancing real issues with a light-hearted tone. Bigelow’s compassionate take on the classic middle school topics of family, friendship, and first romance hits all the right notes. Highly recommended.” — School Library Journal (starred review)
“In a story about growing pains, turning points, and self-discovery, Bigelow shows an equally clear understanding of the dynamics of young adolescent emotions. Bigelow has a graceful and genuine touch as her protagonist processes new experiences and navigates changes in friendships and family.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
ALA Booklist (starred review)
This vivid first-person narrative revolves around the well-drawn main character. Bigelow portrays many characters with empathy and skill. A heartfelt novel of family, friends, and change.
Ami Polonsky
Praise for Drum Roll, Please: “Bigelow artfully captures the complexity of middle-school relationships and, with a gentle hand, delivers a mighty message to turn up the volume on your inner drumbeat.
Kirkus Reviews
2019-07-28
Hazel Brownlee-Wellington is an encyclopedia of animal facts, lives on a goat farm, and is penning a guide to misunderstood creatures.
Not one to easily make friends, 13-year-old Hazel doesn't plan to get close to anyone when she starts eighth grade at a new school. She just has to keep her head down until high school, when her life will return to normal with her reunion with her longtime best friend. Then one of her moms announces she's pregnant. Mimi has already had two miscarriages; Hazel, understandably, refuses to be hopeful. She's determined to live in denial until the new baby is born safe and healthy. Although she has a loving family, two new friends, and a herd of goats to keep her company, nothing is easy. She hopes On the Origin of Species will help her make sense of the changes in her life, but not even Charles Darwin can explain the challenges of growing up. Hazel's emotional growth—her increasing understanding of who she was, is, and will be—is gradual. Her first-person narration is insightful; she's highly likable, and her troubles and triumphs will sound familiar to many. Hazel, her biological mother, and her brother are white. The broad diversity among other characters is incorporated naturally: Mimi is black; one new friend, Carina, is a Mexican American trans girl, and another, Yoshi, a cis-boy, is Japanese American and uses a wheelchair.
Warm and memorable. (Fiction. 8-13)
