Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

Dowell returns to middle schoolers Kate and Marylin, whose friendship she has sensitively anatomized in The Secret Language of Girls (2004) and The Kind of Friends We Used to Be (2009). In this final book in the trilogy, Kate and Marylin have drawn further apart, yet each still sees the other as a touchstone. Student-government member and cheerleader Marylin is finding herself torn between the vicious, queen-bee cheerleaders and sweet student-government president Benjamin Huddle. Meanwhile, budding rocker Kate is concerned that she's drawing closer to fellow musician Matthew Holler than she'd like. The introduction of boys into the equation strains the friendships each has made with other girls. As in the previous books, Dowell moves the third-person narration back and forth, getting under their skins with honesty and empathy through vivid, often humorous prose. She refuses to oversimplify, allowing readers access to the girls' homes as well as school, making it clear that their inner lives are as complicated as their readers'. Secondary characters, especially the girls' parents, are likewise given satisfying emotional complexity. The nominal plot--a contest to fund a student-initiated project--doesn't provide much action, but it gives Kate and Marylin an opportunity to make some stupid but ultimately epiphanic choices. Dowell and readers leave Kate and Marylin poised between childhood and adulthood--they are not finished, but they are on their way. Another quietly perceptive tour de force. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

Dowell returns to middle schoolers Kate and Marylin, whose friendship she has sensitively anatomized in The Secret Language of Girls (2004) and The Kind of Friends We Used to Be (2009). In this final book in the trilogy, Kate and Marylin have drawn further apart, yet each still sees the other as a touchstone. Student-government member and cheerleader Marylin is finding herself torn between the vicious, queen-bee cheerleaders and sweet student-government president Benjamin Huddle. Meanwhile, budding rocker Kate is concerned that she's drawing closer to fellow musician Matthew Holler than she'd like. The introduction of boys into the equation strains the friendships each has made with other girls. As in the previous books, Dowell moves the third-person narration back and forth, getting under their skins with honesty and empathy through vivid, often humorous prose. She refuses to oversimplify, allowing readers access to the girls' homes as well as school, making it clear that their inner lives are as complicated as their readers'. Secondary characters, especially the girls' parents, are likewise given satisfying emotional complexity. The nominal plot--a contest to fund a student-initiated project--doesn't provide much action, but it gives Kate and Marylin an opportunity to make some stupid but ultimately epiphanic choices. Dowell and readers leave Kate and Marylin poised between childhood and adulthood--they are not finished, but they are on their way. Another quietly perceptive tour de force. (Fiction. 10-14)

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8 This realistic novel reveals the inner lives of seventh graders negotiating the demands of friends, crushes, and emerging talents. Miriam fights the shallow temptations of popularity, Kate's infatuation with Matthew depletes her sense of self, and Matthew struggles for control of his genuine-but inconsistent-feelings for Kate. The plot hangs loosely on a contest between the cheerleaders and the audio lab for student government funds, but it's the characters who drive the story. They battle their consciences, reflect on the passage of time, and realize that their parents are human beings; they are poignantly bewildered by childhood's retreat. As Kate thinks while pondering the stars one evening, "Life really isn't about fun anymore. It's about bigger things now." The cover will entice children to this breezy story, but the depth of feeling will make them remember it. The third book in the trilogy, The Sound of Your Voice also succeeds on its own. Denise Ryan, Middlesex Middle School, Darien, CT