If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say

February 19, 2018
When 17-year-old former National Spelling Bee champion Winter Halperin tweets about the latest winner—a 12-year-old African-American girl—she finds herself in the middle of a maelstrom. Not only is she vilified as a racist, but one of her best friends, Jason, an African-American, cuts off ties. Winter is stripped of everything that she believes is important: her championship title, her college acceptance, and her belief that she is a “good girl.” Determined to right the wrong, she enrolls in Revibe, a five-week boot camp that helps those who have made epic errors in judgment (and were crucified for it online) find a path to forgiveness. Sales (This Song Will Save Your Life) tackles a thoroughly modern problem, and she is careful to stay within the gray, neither condoning Winter’s explanation nor fully embracing the meaningless apology. A nuanced approach to how the internet encourages the dehumanization of users gives this novel its realistic tone and serves as a strong warning to teens (and their parents). Ages 12–up. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Inkwell Management.

April 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-Winter Halperin has always seen herself as a "good girl": she gets high grades, stays out of trouble, and strongly identifies with her academic achievements, including winning the National Spelling Bee in seventh grade. Then she posts a thoughtless and racist comment online, thinking only a few of her friends will see it. When her post unexpectedly goes viral and becomes the subject of national news stories, Winter suddenly faces vicious online attacks. She is stripped of her National Spelling Bee title and rejected from the prestigious college she was planning to attend. Terrified that she will never regain control of her life, Winter begins to have debilitating anxiety and panic attacks. Eventually, she finds her way to an elite "reputation rehabilitation" retreat, where her fellow participants have all faced some type of public shaming. The participants are coached to atone for their actions by apologizing to everyone they may have hurt, even if the apology is insincere. While the retreat helps Winter find happiness, confidence, and a new romantic interest, it's not evident that she truly atones for her racist mistake or the pain it caused. This is a message-driven book: Internet shaming is wrong. Unfortunately, weak character development and dubious plot twists prevent readers from engaging on an emotional level with this timely topic. While the novel could serve as a springboard for classroom discussion about Internet shaming, it never fully addresses or resolves the problematic premise. VERDICT Not recommended.-Kelsy Peterson, Forest Hill College, Melbourne, Australia

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2018
Sales' (Once Was a Time, 2016, etc.) latest takes a messy dive into the world of public shaming and callout culture.Seventeen-year-old Jewish high school senior Winter Halperin has her life figured out. Thanks to her blogger mother's world-famous parenting strategies, she's a National Spelling Bee champ who dreams of being a writer and is excited to be attending college in the fall. Everything is going smoothly until she casually tweets: "We learned many surprising things today. Like that dehnstufe is apparently a word, and that a black kid can actually win the Spelling Bee." Her tweet goes viral and her punishment is swift and severe: Brutally publicly shamed online, her spelling bee title and college acceptance are revoked. Winter is devastated; thinking she made a clever throwaway joke, she doesn't understand how the world can see her as racist. She decides to sign up for a "reputation rehabilitation retreat," where, through self-reflection, she ultimately finds a spark of hope for her future. While she is sometimes sympathetic and frequently frustrating, Winter never demonstrates a true shift toward understanding microaggressions, systemic racism, and white privilege. The few characters of color primarily seem to exist to explain race and white privilege to both the white protagonist and white readers. While clearly a cautionary tale, the book's ultimate message is as muddled as the world of online shaming.Timely but, like all of us, painfully imperfect. (Fiction. 12-18)

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April 15, 2018
Grades 9-12 We learned many surprising things today, wrote Winter Halperin, former National Spelling Bee champion, in an ill-fated tweet. Like that dehnstufe is apparently a word, and that a black kid can actually win the Spelling Bee. She meant it as a joke. She didn't expect the tweet to go viral, and she certainly didn't expect to wake up to hate mail and death threats. The internet paints Winter as an irredeemable racist; before long, she's lost a best friend, her college acceptance, and her National Spelling Bee title. Does the punishment fit the crime? Maybe not, but no one is interested in hearing Winter's explanations. With nothing else in her future, Winter heads to a retreat that promises to help her rehabilitate her reputation?but she has a lot to learn about apologizing first. This is a sharp, incisive novel about culpability in the digital age. Winter's not quite the villain the world thinks, but neither is she entirely innocent. For teens especially, this will offer valuable perspective on the effect words can have.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)