Just Ask Elsie - Ari Koontz

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Elsie Parker is having a totally normal fifth grade year. Fractions and conjunctions - check. Stressing about middle school - check. Body-positive puberty class at church that also covers feelings and identities - check.

Okay, maybe that last one isn't so normal. It's a little weird (and awkward) to spend her Sundays talking periods, B.O., and pimples. But Elsie's also learning a lot more than she's heard in her public-school health class - like the difference between sex and gender, and what consent is, and what it might mean that she can't stop blushing around a certain cute girl at her school.

When her puberty lessons become the school's latest gossip, Elsie's totally humiliated...until she finds an anonymous note in her locker from a classmate who wants to know more, and realizes that other kids might have embarrassing questions of their own.

Starting an underground advice board wasn't exactly in her plans, but Elsie won't pass up a chance to turn her reputation around - or to share words and labels that have not-so-accidentally been left off their curriculum. But when the principal tries to shut down the unauthorized puberty talk, Elsie has to decide what she's willing to risk to tell the truth to kids who really need to hear it."

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So Elsie is one of only a few students in her school who has access to real, helpful education about what to expect from puberty, and while at first it's embarrassing when people find out, she ultimately realizes that her classmates need the information she's learning as much as she does, and what's more she is passionate about trying to share it. Her principal doesn't like that she's sharing said information on a whiteboard on her locker (particularly information about what the letters in LGBTQ stand for), so she and her crush/new friend team up to put the information in a zine instead. The objection to her whiteboard was that it was too public, so younger students who weren't ready for puberty information might encounter it - a zine shared only with fifth graders solves that problem, right?

Wrong. When a copy is found in a restroom and shared with the principal, Elsie finds herself in hot water with a week of detention. With her future at Pathways, a specialized middle school that would allow her to focus on her passion for art, at risk, Elsie has to consider whether to drop her quest for improved puberty education for her fellow classmates or keep pushing. Dropping it would be the safer path, but with a little encouragement from her friends, Elsie knows she can't just let this go. Together, they hatch a plan to show their principal why actual puberty education is important...but will their message get across? Or will Elsie find herself suspended and, worse, lose her spot at Pathways?

I liked this book (the first two thirds got me through my iron infusion this week), so I'm going to get my gripes out of the way first so then we can focus on the good stuff. I've only got two, but let's say one and a half because one isn't exclusive to this book, it's more of a general peeve. So, gripe the first: all the Pathways stuff. Elsie has two parents and a DNA donor who have the means and capacity to advocate for inclusive policies and positive change in public schools, so OF COURSE they're going to send their kid to a specialized school instead of continuing with the public school system! Why try to make public schools better for everyone when you could just use your means to make sure your kid is taken care of? Like I said, this isn't specifically a complaint with this book, but it's something that really irks my nerves. If we want public schools to be better, then the families like Elsie's need to support the public school system. That's all I'll say about that.

Gripe the second: the lack of dimension with the principal. Are there teachers and admin out there like this principal, complete tools who clearly became teachers to exert control over kids in attempt to feel powerful and in control? FOR SURE. But in my experience, admin who mean well but are quick to crumple to perceived possible pressure from narrowminded parents at the expense of student well-being are much more common, and it would have been more satisfying to see this type of more nuanced take, instead of just having it be "principal bad guy, must take him down!"

Anyhow, all that said, overall I thought this was a very strong story, and I appreciated that Elsie found ways to push back where needed in a way that felt true to life and not contrived. I loved the character development and how well multiple different students were brought in without it feeling overwhelming or like people were being shoehorned in. I really appreciated Mara and Elsie's friendship, and I especially loved that while they did get in a big fight, the way it was resolved demonstrated healthy communication in a very realistic way. I also loved Elsie's relationship with her parents, and I thought her dad's interactions with her were so sweet and understanding. Finally, I thought the development of Elsie's crush was a great way to showcase a little bit of romance without it feeling unrealistic or too mature for her age. The characters were the strongest part of this book, and I loved them all.

Strays - Gia Gordon

Initial Draw: ☆☆☆☆☆
Character Development: ☆☆☆☆

Plot/Writing Style: ☆☆☆

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

From the cover:

"Campbell Cole has a big heart for all living things, especially strays. It might be because her father, the director of the local animal control, is as aloof as they come, so Campbell knows what it's like to feel alone. 

When she spots an adorable dog being dumped on the street, the last thing Campbell can do is tell her dad. He might take the pup straight to the shelter, where new rescues have just three days to be adopted. The only person she can trust with the truth is her best friend, Luz.

The more time Campbell spends trying to catch the dog, the more he starts to trust her, which is both great and terrible because Campbell knows she can't keep him. But perhaps she doesn't have to. With the help of Luz's father, an army vet grappling with PTSD, she just may find a solution that benefits not only the dog, but everyone else, too."

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Another ARC, already?! I must be on a roll...or it took me a really long time to finish my last one and then I read this one right after and finished it in a couple of days. Could be either, really.

Anyhow, as a card-carrying animal-obsessed person who works at a school full of kids who equally love animals and staff who regularly help rescue lost pups in the neighborhood (I keep an extra leash and harness in my bottom desk drawer just in case and so does our school secretary, that's how often we end up taking in wandering doggos to help track down their owners), I was sold on the idea immediately. 

The thing about it is, though, it is SO SAD, in such a hopeless-feeling way, for MOST of the book. I did end up enjoying it overall, and I'll still give it a shot for my school library, but I'm not sure students will stick with it for the entire almost 300 pages when the bulk of it is such a downer. Up until the last couple of chapters, I had to take periodic breaks to just sit there and feel sad, and my husband even asked me if I was okay a couple of times. That's how sad it was.

I enjoyed Campbell, Luz, and their friendship, and I loved the array of school staff we got to meet. It felt very true to life to have such a blend of staff, teaching styles, and attitudes, and I have to give a shout out to Gordon for having a NICE LIBRARIAN! She was lovely and the kind of librarian that I strive to be. I also enjoyed the dynamic of Luz's family, their interactions with each other and the different types of back-and-forth depending on who was there. Again, very true to life. I thought the characters were one of the highlights of the book. 

Where I struggled was that after creating all these gorgeous, lifelike characters, the plot developed too slowly. Everything that happens in the book is included in the synopsis, and that should not be the case. I think if Campbell had caught the abandoned puppy and come up with the plan for Luz's dad to help them earlier in the book, we could have seen more of what came next and the whole book would have felt more hopeful. Instead, we got like 260 pages of pure sadness and then a fast forward through a solution and next steps. As noted, overall I still think it's a decent read, but I thought it had so much more potential.