The Things We Miss by Leah Stecher (review)

Reviewed by: The Things We Miss by Leah Stecher Cassidy Russell Stecher, Leah The Things We Miss. Bloomsbury, 2024 288 Trade ed. ISBN 9781547613021 17. 99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781547613038 12. 59 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 5-7 J. P. would give anything to just skip seventh grade, and it seems her wish has come true when she finds a magical treehouse that allows her to skip three days into the future. She still technically lives through those days but doesn't remember anything about them unless she writes herself notes. She skips hugely difficult things, like watching her grandfather's deterioration from cancer, and smaller difficult things, like the fitness test at school or being bullied for her weight. As her reliance on the treehouse increases, she pushes away her best friend, begins failing classes, and tragically misses her grandfather's last moments. J. P. just wants to skip forward to an easier time, but will her future magically be better if she doesn't live through the present? Although the message gets heavy-handed, it works best when it is further developed by the anger that her best friend feels about the things she misses and her grandfather's insistence that the "beauty in life comes from living it. " J. P. operates from a place of fear that will be familiar to many readers, and her refusal to feel hopeful is particularly painful when she reads her notes to herself and learns that her skipping has resulted in the irrevocable loss of positive and affirming memories. The book is unapologetically body-positive, highlighting both micro- and macroaggressions and different ways to confront them, ranging from J. P. 's fear of getting bullied if she befriends another fat girl to the amount of joy she misses because she's busy judging her own body. When J. P. finally learns that people don't change End Page 295 unless you make them, she stands up for and to herself, resulting in a heartwarming (and heartbreaking) story you won't want to skip through. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois