A Shot at Normal

December 1, 2020

Gr 8 Up-Juniper Jade's white Southern California family eats only organic food, sells herbs at the farmer's market, conducts school in their kitchen, makes their own Christmas presents, drives an old van that runs on vegetable oil, and doesn't vaccinate. Most of these family quirks make home cozy and savory for 16-year-old Juniper. That is, until she contracts the measles-and inadvertently gives them to a baby, who dies. Wracked with guilt and wanting a normal teenage life, Juniper embarks on a journey to get herself vaccinated so that she doesn't contract any more preventable diseases or do more community harm. Juniper's parents, second-wave hippies who are set in their beliefs that vaccines are toxic, refuse to give her permission to get the shots. Juniper's journey to bodily autonomy leads her to the library, where she meets the helpful Noah and his mom, who has an attorney friend who will do pro bono work to help her. Complementing the serious tone of the novel is Juniper's burgeoning relationship with tan-skinned Noah, who becomes an almost too-good-to-be-true boyfriend. He also becomes her entree into normal teen life: football games, parties, film club, and friends. Told in a linear narrative from summer until spring, Juniper's moral quandary and lived experiences fill vividly episodic and succinct chapters. VERDICT As readers live with coronavirus and newfound knowledge of communicable disease, this timely novel deftly explores issues of vaccination, misinformation, how personal medical choices can affect others, and the time-tested theme of belonging outside of the family unit.-Jamie Winchell, Percy Julian M.S., IL

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2020
A 16-year-old with anti-vaxxer parents fights back. Juniper Jade's parents follow a hippie, New Age lifestyle: home schooling, following an all-organic lifestyle, using homemade deodorant, forbidding cellphones--and, especially, no vaccinations. While her siblings, Poppy and Sequoia, are too young to know any better, Juniper wishes she could have a more mainstream life, pleading in vain to attend public school. But when she catches measles and spreads it at the farmers market to Katherine St. Pierre, a 6-week-old baby who then dies, Juniper comes to understand how her parents' decisions affect more lives than hers and she vows to get vaccinated. Unfortunately, no medical professional will allow a minor to get any shots without their parents' permission, so she searches for a lawyer who will help her make her case. A sweet romance with Nico, a boy she meets at the library, keeps the tone breezy and the story moving along at a good pace. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic and news stories about the rise in anti-vaccination movements, this novel presents a timely and important examination of the role of personal responsibility in public health in addition to including a thoughtful discussion about bodily autonomy. However, the one-note characters and predictable plot prevent this from rising above the issues at hand. Main characters default to White. A well-researched, compelling concept that suffers from heavy-handed treatment. (author's note) (Fiction. 12-18)

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2021
Grades 8-12 Juniper Jade just wants to have a normal teenage life, but that's hard when your parents homeschool you and your siblings and have a commitment to an all-organic approach--including when it comes to medicine. When unvaccinated Juniper comes down with the measles and unknowingly infects an infant, she's determined to ensure that something like this never happens again, even if she has to sue her parents for the right to be vaccinated. Reichardt (Aftershocks, 2020) makes a complex, hot-button subject accessible while still maintaining nuance. The careful and methodical plot draws readers through Juniper's legal process as well as social events that heighten her desire to get vaccinated. A romantic subplot involving a film buff who goes to school across from Juniper's home rounds out the story. Socially conscious teens will enjoy this story of a girl finding her power and taking a big issue into her own hands despite the mature structures that stand in her way.

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