Review copy provided by the publisher. Also I have known Jodi on this here internet since forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is an interesting category of book that I don’t think we saw as much of in years past: it’s a nerd book that’s not speculative. Ingrid, the protagonist, is deeply emotionally involved with her favorite fantasy novel series and her favorite online game; they are both crucial to the plot. But at no point does the game come to life, nor does she fall into a fantasy landscape. The realistic world is stressful enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ingrid is terminally shy, and going into the eighth grade she’s been friends with Rachel, who is demanding and self-centered. Her best friend, Lorren, is through an online game, but having some in-person friends who don’t neg her and push her around–some friends who could notice the quiet girl in the corner–would be nice too. She also has a popular “scroll” on social media–under the name of Anony Mouse for a reason. Her hilarious wrong number texts have a large following, but only Rachel, Lorren, and Grandma know it’s her. Something has to change–and the arrival of new kids in town will be the spark of that change. Ingrid’s wrong texts lead to a new friendship just as her friendship with Rachel is crumbling to dust. But Rachel isn’t letting go easily–and the new friend maintains a mystery. She’d love to find out more, but he continues coy–for nefarious reasons or otherwise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I really loved Ingrid’s relationship with her grandmother, and all the sensory details of the knitting and the food are spot on. Some of the social dynamics are frustrating, but they’re frustrating in the direction of realistic eighth graders rather than externally imposed melodrama. If you’re not in the mood for non-speculative older middle grade, this is definitely in that genre, but if that’s the day you’re having (or the stage of life you’re in!), this is a sweet story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Review copy provided by the publisher. Also I have known Jodi on this here internet since forever. This is an interesting category of book that I don’t think we saw as much of in years past: it’s a nerd book that’s not speculative. Ingrid, the protagonist, is deeply emotionally involved with her favorite fantasy novel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-3992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bookses-precious"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3993,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3992\/revisions\/3993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marissalingen.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}