The Sound of Your Voice, Only Really Far Away by Frances O'Roark Dowell (review)

Seventh grade continues to bring changes for Kate and Marylin, the formerly best friends who drifted apart in The Secret Language of Girls (BCCB 7/04) and discovered new relationships in The Kind of Friends We Used to Be (BCCB 5/09). Marylin is heading toward a crisis, as the cheerleading squad disapproves of her new boyfriend, the student council president, and in a desperate attempt to retain her status with them she promises to convince him to spend the class funds on new cheerleader uniforms. Meanwhile, Kate the uncompromising is denying how much she's compromising for the boy she likes. Dowell's examination of this pair continues to bring fresh nuance and insight to familiar middle-school dilemmas. Marylin is particularly sympathetically treated as the girl who genuinely likes pink, cheerleading, and approval, and the book wisely makes her leaving the cheerleading team (and peer group) not the climax of the book but the engine for her rebalancing midway through. Kate's realization that her heart won't always obligingly cater to her rock chick self-image is honestly explored, and there's a truly touching secondary plot about her changing relationship with her father. The author continues to write some of the most authentic and faceted characters in youth literature, and she brings new perspective to the classic story of middle-school girls in transition.