A humorous but insightful novel about shifting middle-school social circles, crushes, and coming out.
Twelve-year-old Noah Frye is looking forward to seventh grade. Her new best friend from camp, Jessa, is moving to Noah’s small hometown in Canada, and will be going to school with Noah and her two other best friends, Zoey and Luna. But something’s changed about Zoey and Luna, who now only want to talk about the boys they have crushes on.
Noah, however, doesn’t have an interest in boys, but being of a scientific mindset, decides to run an experiment. If she pretends to have a crush on a boy, will it turn into a real crush and help things return to normal with her friends? While she’s working on this, she’s also trying to help Jessa integrate with her friend group—which is important, since Jessa has been on her mind ever since they first met.
It’s not too hard to guess from the inclusion of the book in this database that Noah eventually realizes her crush has been misplaced, and she actually likes girls. Author Maggie Horne provides both humor and empathy throughout, weaving in an unexpected dash of queer community support and allyship as Noah navigates her own insecurities, assumptions, and friendships on the way to greater self-awareness. A few additional twists that I won’t spoil help make this an even more delightful read and a highly recommended title.
Maggie and her family read as White; Zoey as Asian. Other characters read as White.
