ALA Booklist (Wed Jul 06 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Essie is not looking forward to starting her semester in a new city, but when her father encourages her to befriend Ollie, the nonbinary child of a coworker, things start to look up. Though they get off to an awkward start, soon a deeper, more complex relationship develops between the two. Ollie's LGBTQ+ activism forces Essie to look deeper at her assumptions around gender and sexuality which some of the storytelling feels particularly aimed at cisgender readers who have not been exposed to LGBTQ+ identities ough a lack of communication makes their chances of a romance more than a little bit shaky. Essie and Ollie are both white, but their friends Savannah (Black) and Luciana (Latina) bring some diversity to the cast of characters. The narrative is split between Essie and Ollie, though in two distinct halves of the text, rather than alternating back-and-forth throughout the novel. Polonsky (Gracefully Grayson, 2014) has written a hopeful and insightful text for young readers to explore gender and sexual identity through an enticing story of friendship, family, and first love.

Kirkus Reviews (Wed Jul 06 00:00:00 CDT 2022)

Esther, who goes by Essie, moves to a new state and falls in love.Essie relocates to North Carolina with her dad for a semester as part of his job as a professor. She says a temporary goodbye to her old friends but soon meets nonbinary Ollie and develops a crush on them. Essie helps Ollie out with the school's LGBTQ+ club while starting to question her own orientation because of her feelings for Ollie. The narrative is split into two halves, the first narrated by Essie and the second by Ollie, which cover the same time span, helpfully marked by a day count. Gender identity forms a large part of the narrative, but Ollie's nonbinary gender is portrayed as a natural part of them rather than a big issue or wow moment. Ollie's relationship with their mother is adorable and heartwarming, with their mother using the rather sweet and gender-neutral "kiddo" to refer to them. Bigotry against Ollie is briefly addressed in one scene but is done so tactfully; it is clear that a great deal of empathy has gone into this narrative. The romance and chemistry between Essie and Ollie are also enjoyable. Essie and Ollie are both White while two of their mutual friends are Black and Latinx.A charming, feel-good LGBTQ+ story. (Fiction. 10-14)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

This dual-perspective ode to the joys and complications of first love follows Essie Rosenberg, a white girl from St. Louis, who is upset that she must spend the first semester of seventh grade in North Carolina, where her father is a visiting professor. Counting down the days until she can return home, Essie-s outlook begins to shift when she meets-and immediately begins crushing on-classmate Ollie, who is white and nonbinary. Essie-s feelings seem requited, but the duo only have until the end of the school year to navigate their budding relationship. Polonsky (Gracefully Grayson) sensitively handles Ollie-s gender identity while fully fleshing out their character. The first half of the novel describes the semester from Essie-s point of view, while the second part shares Ollie-s perspective, revealing that Ollie is struggling to forge an identity outside of their work as an LGBTQ advocate and is not as confident and collected as Essie believes. Repeated scenes and conversations from various points of view sometimes prove tedious, but the novel makes a compelling argument, reinforced by an extended optical illusion metaphor, for looking at the world from another-s lens. Ages 8-12. Agent: Wendy Schmalz, Wendy Schmalz Agency. (Feb.)