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  • Falling over Sideways by Jordan Sonnenblick
  • Karen Coats
Sonnenblick, Jordan Falling over Sideways. Scholastic, 2016 [272p]
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-545-86324-7 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-545-86326-1 $17.99
Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 5-8

Claire is having a difficult last year in middle school, separating from her best dance friends and struggling with being on the outs with the mean girls at school. At least her inner voice has a full stockpile of snark to get her through the day, although she doesn’t like it when her dad turns her exasperated sarcasm against her. She and he have always been close, which makes it all the more horrible when he has a stroke. That challenge takes center stage for everyone except Claire, who is still mostly invested in her adolescent problems, of which her father’s slow and incomplete [End Page 600] recovery becomes yet another one. A frank talk with her brother turns her around, and Claire slowly gets some perspective, not only on the relative weight of what matters in life but also on who her friends really are and how she might be able to help her father. Much of this novel is carried by the humorous voice, intimacy, and relatability of Claire’s perspective; it’s only when you go a few thousand miles out that you see this as the mild scold it is to middle-school students everywhere who think their relationship problems are the worst, most all-consuming things to ever happen in the history of the world. As a rebuke to such egoism, however, it’s pretty gentle and heartfelt and, well, completely necessary, so why not?

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