Listen to This by Jennifer Blecher (review)

Reviewed by: Listen to This by Jennifer Blecher Cassidy Russell Blecher, Jennifer Listen to This. Greenwillow, 2024 224p Trade ed. ISBN 9780063140738 18. 99 E-book ed. ISBN 9780063140752 10. 99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 4-7 Lily's excitement about the upcoming seventh-grade dance is dampened when she begins to worry that she and her two best friends are growing apart. Meanwhile, Will isn't even considering going to the dance because he knows his widowed dad will share every detail about it afterward on his overly personal podcast about being a single parent. A lost water bottle brings the two teens together, and as Lily and Will navigate their blossoming feelings for each other, they must also learn how to deal with a shared enemy: Sienna, the popular girl at school who might be trying to ruin their lives. Third-person narration shifts focus between Lily and Will, bringing compassion and tenderness to a variety of experiences, both complicated and nuanced, including Lily's friend's coming out and Will's recognition that his father is mourning Will's mother in his own way. Blecher's strength lies in her ability to write from a thirteen-year-old's perspective about the embarrassment of everyday life, as well as in the authentic sweetness she crafts in many of the characters' End Page 243 relationships. Sienna is written with a judgmental two-dimensionality (mean girls throughout the book are referred to as Siennas) that isn't fully mitigated by a final act change of heart, but Lily and Will make for believable and relatable joint protagonists. Readers braving or about to brave middle school will enjoy following along as all of the characters, parents included, learn about both the emotional toll of making wrong assumptions and the power of honesty in this sweet and funny ode to new relationships. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois