ALA Booklist

Twelve-year-old Frannie struggles with anxiety and fears being left alone. Her unsympathetic mother tells her to pull herself together when she panics at the news of her parents' last-minute trip to Jamaica over Christmas. Predictably, her siblings throw a wild party on Christmas Eve, and Frannie, hiding in her room, wishes for a white Christmas, a puppy, and a loving family before falling asleep. When she wakes up, she's someone else: Dakota, in a picture-perfect family on a snow-covered farm, and she overcomes her anxiety to feed chickens and ride horses. When she wakes again, it is still Christmas, but now she is a famous teen pop star. The cycle continues is is part Quantum Leap, part Groundhog Day she wakes to a new, increasingly less-perfect life each Christmas morning. While the final chapters read a little like therapy, the premise of waking to a new life is engaging, and Frannie makes for a sympathetic protagonist.

Horn Book

Twelve-year-old Frannie's self-centered parents go to the Caribbean for Christmas and leave her with her terrible teenage siblings. She falls asleep wallowing in self-pity but wakes up in another girl's reality. As Frannie magically moves from life to life (pop star, sailor, homeless person), she gains insight. Short shift is given to Frannie's family, but the situations she bounces into will keep readers' interest.

Kirkus Reviews

Frannie Hudson, an anxiety-ridden 12-year-old white girl, is about to have the strangest Christmas of her life.First, her parents fly off to Jamaica for some surprise alone time on Christmas Eve, providing the perfect opportunity for Frannie's older brother and sister to throw the party of the century. Nobody seems to care that all Frannie wants is to have her family, horrifyingly insensitive and selfish as they may be, together for the holidays. But greater forces are at work here, and Frannie soon finds herself "bouncing," à la Scrooge without a ghost, from Christmas present to Christmas present. The difference is, she isn't invisible. At every stop along the way, Frannie becomes whoever belongs to the shoes she is filling—a farm girl, a pop star, a girl sailing with her father and brother in Tahiti, a girl whose brother has just died, and a homeless girl—and experiences their Christmases, their ways. (Just one, the pop star, is a person of color.) Unfortunately, just like many holidays, Frannie's story feels overdone. There is no middle ground here, no subtleties. Characters are either unfailingly kind or painfully cruel, though their circumstances vary. Predictably, Frannie learns important lessons about herself during each new homestay, lessons that are painstakingly, even insultingly spelled out. An over-the-top Christmas confection. (Fantasy. 10-13)

School Library Journal

Gr 5 Up-It's Christmas Eve, and 12-year-old Frannie Hudson's parents left her at home with her two older siblings in order to jet away on a Caribbean vacation. Carmen and Teddy are throwing an out-of-control party, exiling Frannie to her bedroom. She falls asleep, thinking things can't get any worse. Instead of waking up in her room the next morning, Frannie has "bounced" into another person's reality. She is thrust into the body of a country girl with a loving family who accept her without question. The preteen is totally confused but feels so much more at home than she ever did in her real life. At the end of each day, Frannie "bounces" into another person's life, from a pop star, to a girl sailing around the world with her father and little brother, to, most surprisingly, a girl she has seen being bullied at school. Each time she wakes up, the protagonist has to adjust to new surroundings and expectations. Instead of feeling alone and helpless, like she does in her normal life, Frannie rises to the challenge, and through being in other people's skin, she discovers the truth of who she is and what defines her. Shull uses the surreal narrative to explore the dynamics of family conflicts, taking Frannie on a journey in which she experiences emotions and situations that ultimately teach her to accept her situation but not let it define her. A somewhat unsympathetic narrator in the beginning, she grows more likable and even funny throughout. VERDICT Inspirational without being overly didactic. Hand this empowering novel to readers that need a boost of self-confidence. Tara Kron, formerly at School Library Journal

Voice of Youth Advocates

Frannie's parents announce that they are heading away for Christmas, the day before they leave. Her brother and sister are in charge, but rather than spend the holiday with their sister, they throw a wild party, then leave her home alone. Alone and scared in her bedroom on Christmas Eve, twelve-year-old Frannie makes a wish. The next morning, she literally falls into another life, into a family that loves their daughter with a sister that wants to spend time with her. It sounds perfect, only the next morning she is in another body and with another family.A little like Groundhog Day and a lot like David Levithan's Every Day (Penguin, 2012/VOYA December 2012), Bounce looks at many different lives and how families work, or do not work. Frannie's family is extremely dysfunctional, maybe even a bit verbally abusive. The most frustrating part is that throughout her journey, Frannie is not able to make her home life better. Although she learns independence, and not to trust much of what her family says to her, she does not do anything about it. In that way, the book seems unfinished; however, as it is paired with a fun and bright cover, expect tweens and teens to pick this off the shelf.Kristi Sadowski.