What to Say Next

June 26, 2017
One month after the death of her father in a car accident, high school junior Kit Lowell is beginning to realize that “grief not only morphs time, but space too.” Distancing herself from her two best friends, who are back to talking about things like prom, Kit begins spending lunch with her socially isolated classmate David Drucker, appreciating his awkwardness and blunt honesty. David has always considered Kit to be the most beautiful girl at school, but his Asperger’s syndrome has left him largely alienated and their interactions brief. As they grow closer, revelations about the car accident and the contents of David’s notebook (filled with commentary about his peers) threaten their tenuous relationship. Buxbaum (Tell Me Three Things) uses split first-person narration to give readers striking insight into both teens. Unlike his peers and the school administration, readers will easily see David as a complex, brilliant individual. Discussion of Kit’s family and heritage (her mother is Indian) bring additional complexity and depth to this portrait of grief and recovery. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM.

June 15, 2017
Opposites attract after tragedy strikes.Autistic white teen David Drucker spends every lunch period eating alone. When Indian-American popular girl Kit Lowell joins him one day she's just looking for a quiet place to sit. It's been one month since Kit's father, a white dentist, died in a terrible car accident, but Kit is still flailing. As the two teens get to know one another and eat lunch together each day, they find themselves bringing out their own best qualities. Slowly but surely, romance blooms. There's a warmth and ease to their relationship that the author captures effortlessly. Each chapter alternates perspective between Kit and David, and each one is fully rendered. The supporting characters are less well served, particularly Kit's first-generation-immigrant mother. There are two major complications in Kit's story, both involving her workaholic mother, and the lack of development defuses some potential fireworks. The central relationship is so charming and engaging that readers will tolerate the adequate tertiary characters. Less tolerable is a late-in-the-game reveal about Dr. Lowell's accident that shifts the novel's tone to a down note that juxtaposes poorly with everything that came before. The author pulls out in the final few pages, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth. A pleasant romance hindered by some curious choices. (Romance. 12-16)

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August 1, 2017

Gr 7-10-David is a middle-class high school student who describes himself as nonneurotypical, or having a "borderline case of Asperger's." He has a loving family, including an older sister who deftly helps him navigate social interaction, in part through a notebook wherein he describes his world and determines whom he can trust. One of the trusted few is a classmate named Kit, an ambitious only child wracked with grief over her father's death. Fleeing devoted friends who suddenly seem ridiculously shallow and self-absorbed, Kit sits at David's table one day for lunch. Tired of pity and platitudes, she warms to David's "brutal honesty" about the death of her dad. Slowly, with pathos and humor, Kit and David develop a friendship on the outskirts of the high school milieu. Their story emerges from alternating first-person narratives that progress effortlessly. The pair's friendship is tested by David's inability to read cues and by closely held secrets that both of them are nursing. It blooms into first love, and both grow as a result of their challenges. With this layered novel, Buxbaum handles the theme of identity with rare genius. As narrator, David inspires love and respect, not because of his neurological and social struggles, but because he is an admirable human being. His neural challenges do not define him or his trajectory. Similarly, questions abut the meaning and importance of ethnicity (What does it mean to be Asian? Or Italian?) thread their way through the book without overwhelming it. VERDICT A must-have for YA collections.-Sheri Reda, Wilmette Public Library, IL

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