Something Like Gravity

April 1, 2019
Two teens struggling with their pasts fall in love over the summer and help one another gain confidence. Transgender Chris escapes to his aunt's house for the summer, 700 miles away from bad memories and high tension with his parents. Cisgender Maia, with a Christian father and Jewish mother, on the other hand, chases the ghost of her dead sister, Mallory, through the photographs that Mallory left behind. Both of them long for someone to see them without defining them by the hardships in their lives. When their lives intersect, love pulls them together "like she was magnetic north, and I was just a rule of nature." Alternating between Chris' and Maia's perspectives, Smith (The Last to Let Go, 2018, etc.) crafts a slow summer romance with an emphasis on consent and an open, hopeful resolution. Love helps both characters grow, heal, and learn more about themselves. After Maia discovers that Chris is transgender, she realizes the information is his to disclose in his own time and assures him when he tells her that it doesn't change her feelings. Although Chris' aunt and eventually his parents support him, he lacks connection to other transgender people apart from viewing videos and lurking on social media. He also takes pride in "passing." The cast of characters is a white default. A sensitive romance that values personal growth and inner truth. (Fiction. 14-18)

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May 1, 2019

Gr 8 Up-When Chris moves to small-town North Carolina to live with his aunt for the summer, he just wants to start over. After an assault that put him in the hospital for weeks, he has come out to his parents as transgender, and now he feels trapped by their fear and alienated as they fumble to understand his gender identity. Next door is Maia, whose family is consumed by grief after her older sister's sudden death. Unable to turn to her family for support, Maia obsessively sifts through her sister's thousands of photographs, trying to locate and re-create the shots with her camera in an attempt to better understand who she has lost. Chris and Maia's romance unfolds slowly, as they guard their most vulnerable secrets. Both trans readers and allies will be able to empathize with Chris's journey from tomboy to trans man, which is treated with grace as he explores the roles and messages that come along with one's assigned gender. It's beautiful to watch him be able to live fully in his new community as male. Maia's family's hurt and isolation from one another is palpable and a painful counterpoint to their close-knit community. Above all, this book is about the mistakes people make when they think they are alone in their grief. It's a beautiful story of first romantic love, but also the love between friends and family. VERDICT Recommend this title to fans of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Eleanor & Park, or The Sun Is Also a Star.-Erin Downey, Boise School District, ID

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2019
Grades 9-12 Separately, Chris and Maia are two teens consumed by deep personal problems. When Chris spends the summer at his aunt's in small-town North Carolina to escape his parents' arguments about his being transgender, the two teens meet and gradually become more than friends. Nevertheless, it takes time for Chris to reveal he's trans, and he doesn't want to talk about the brutal gendered assault he suffered a year ago. Maia's reluctance to talk about her sister's death continues to shield another secret she's hoping never to reveal, especially to Chris. Smith's whole-hearted support of LBGTQ teens and equality is genuine, as is her acknowledgment that grief must occur on one's own terms. Both narrators are honest in their own narratives even when they hide truths from each other, and the inclusion of close friends who are placed at arms' length bring an added dimension of authenticity to the story. Teens who need to find their place in a world they hope will accept and understand them will want to read this compelling novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)