In this high-interest, low-reading (hi-lo) level book, 13-year-old Polly and her friends are looking forward to the end of middle school and the start of summer—but need money for some summer fun. Polly, who wants to be an entrepreneur, comes up with the idea of starting a matchmaking service to help seventh and eighth graders find dates for the school dance. But figuring out how to pair people up isn’t as easy as it first appeared, especially since Polly is developing a crush of her own on a boy in her circle.
As Polly struggles to keep the project afloat and motivate her team, she finds herself bending the truth in ways that might come back to haunt her. Will she alienate all her friends and ruin the dance for everyone at the school? Or is there a way her venture might still be a success?
The book uses the plot to lightly explore themes of fitting in, being oneself, and standing by one’s friends. Polly and her friends are also a diverse group: Polly is White, as are a couple of friends, while one is Black and one is Asian (Korean American). One wears hearing aids and another is autistic. And yes, one is gay. His queerness isn’t part of the plot, but the friends are all seamlessly accepting of him and of making sure their dating service takes people’s “gender preferences” into account.
The book is clearly trying to be inclusive—but using the term “preference” when referring to someone’s sexual/relationship orientation is old-fashioned and even offensive. “Preference” implies a choice that can be changed, or a matter of degree among several valid possibilities. (E.g., “I like strawberry ice cream, but I prefer chocolate.”) That’s not the case for many queer people. (See also the GLAAD Media Reference Guide.) (Also, “gender [anything]”—whether “preference” or “choice”—feels like it might be confused with “gender identity” by young readers.) I understand that the book might have wanted to avoid the word “sexual” and thus use something other than “sexual orientation,” but “relationship orientation” or “romantic orientation” would have been better.
I’m happy to see a book centers around middle-school dating and that takes the existence of queer youth for granted without necessarily being “about” queer youth. The story is fun and lighthearted. I just wish it used better terminology.
