From the Publisher
"An unflinching, unputdownable story. Heartbreaking and ultimately empowering, this book should be read by every kid as well as the adults who care about them.” — Anne Ursu, author of Breadcrumbs and The Real Boy
“Timely, brave, and bold. A necessary book for readers of all ages. Impossible to put down and impossible to stop thinking about, this book is more than special—it is vital. Readers will feel seen and heard—the truest gift a book can give us.” — Corey Ann Haydu, author of Eventown and The Someday Suitcase
"Carter crafts a powerful novel about sexual harassment and the adults who often diminish or ignore it. Carter does a good job in addressing the topics of sexual assault and consent. This novel leaves readers with an important message about sexual harassment. An excellent addition to middle grade collections." — School Library Journal (starred review)
"This ambitious novel covers significant, rarely explored ground. This is sure to ignite mother-daughter book club debates." — Kirkus Reviews
“The uneasiness Lydia feels with unwanted male attention and peers who suggest that she should covet it sends a powerful message about the male gaze and the importance of individual consent.” — Publishers Weekly
“Carter has crafted a realistic coming-of-age story of empowerment, and Lydia’s experiences teach readers that it’s important to speak up—even about loved ones—and ask for help.” — Booklist
Anne Ursu
"An unflinching, unputdownable story. Heartbreaking and ultimately empowering, this book should be read by every kid as well as the adults who care about them.”
Corey Ann Haydu
Timely, brave, and bold. A necessary book for readers of all ages. Impossible to put down and impossible to stop thinking about, this book is more than special—it is vital. Readers will feel seen and heard—the truest gift a book can give us.”
Booklist
Carter has crafted a realistic coming-of-age story of empowerment, and Lydia’s experiences teach readers that it’s important to speak up—even about loved ones—and ask for help.
Booklist
Carter has crafted a realistic coming-of-age story of empowerment, and Lydia’s experiences teach readers that it’s important to speak up—even about loved ones—and ask for help.
Kirkus Reviews
2020-04-12
Lydia, 12, would rather swelter in heavy clothes in the August heat than endure her mom’s boyfriend, Jeremy, touching her bare skin.
Without saying why, Lydia gives her cousin Emma, 11, who lives with them, the candy he slips them. Jeremy’s not the only male threat in Lydia’s world: Andrew and their male Catholic school classmates find ingenious ways to look up her skirt. Knowing her friends happily seek male attention that sickens her, she keeps her reactions to herself. Is it normal to enjoy this? Lydia, who’s white, has distanced herself from Emma, whose mother is deceased and who longs to live with her dad. (Emma’s biracial; her mom was black and her dad is white.) Emotionally isolated from her squabbling, divorced parents, Lydia dreads hurting her attorney mom; her bartender dad often cancels their scheduled visits. Dreading the day Jeremy will move into their new house, Lydia discovers it contains a room with herbal extracts and a book of spells she hopes will offer needed protection. This ambitious novel covers significant, rarely explored ground. Do manspreading, unchecked sexualized teasing, and sexual predation share a continuum of exploitation? Who gets to define each? Why most female characters here accept these behaviors with passive resignation or active welcome remains frustratingly unexplored. Also hovering unacknowledged is the role of sexual objectification as a societal norm and value.
A flawed but urgent read set in the fading #MeToo era, this is sure to ignite mother-daughter book club debates. (Fiction. 11-13)
