Hazel, a White girl who lives on a goat farm with her two moms (one White, one Black), is starting eighth grade at a new school, leaving behind the only friend who understood her. Not only that, but one of her moms is pregnant again after two miscarriages, and Hazel is hesitant to get her hopes up that this time will be any different. She wonders if her beloved encyclopedias and other books about animals will help her understand her own life.
She finds friendship, however, with two new classmates, a Mexican American transgender girl and a Japanese American cisgender boy who uses a wheelchair. We learn along the way that Hazel has no interest in sex or romantic relationships; this makes her the first (to my knowledge) asexual/aromantic protagonist in a middle grade book. Author Bigelow admirably doesn’t make this part of her identity into a “very special lesson” about what it means to be ace/aro—it’s just part of who Hazel is, and her family accepts this—although she offers some further insight in an Author’s Note.
A thoughtful and touching story about adolescence and relationships, romantic and otherwise.
