Chirp

Starred review from November 18, 2019
When Mia’s grandma has a mild stroke, the middle schooler’s family moves from Boston to Burlington, Vt., to help her grandmother sell her cricket farm. As a former entomology professor and entomophagist, however, Gram is determined to get more people eating protein-rich crickets and expand the farm—if she can first figure out who is sabotaging it. With the help of two friends she meets at Launch Camp for Young Entrepreneurs, Mia—a fearless gymnast until an injury and a painful secret leaves her uncertain and cautious—creates a business plan for Gram’s cricket farm and starts sleuthing for Gram’s
saboteur. But doing so means that Mia must find both her courage and her voice. Messner addresses #MeToo themes authentically and with care as her story moves toward empowerment: Mia displays fear and confusion alongside a hope to reclaim the strength she once felt as a gymnast. Layering mystery elements, strong and myriad female characters, and a poignant analogy involving chirp-less female crickets, Messner gently guides Mia on a journey of resilience that both comforts and inspires. Ages 10–14. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary.

Narrator Marissa Czyz portrays the sadness Mia carries. It's more than the dread and anger she's feeling because her parents are forcing her to attend summer camps instead of watching TV, as she's been doing since her gymnastics injury the year before. She's cheered, however, about returning to be with her grandmother, an entomologist, who runs a cricket farm. Soon Mia is swept up in helping her grandmother succeed at promoting crickets as an alternate food source and at solving the mystery of who is sabotaging these efforts. Czyz dramatizes Mia's changes from reluctance to enjoyment of both camps and the new friends she makes. Still, the sadness lurks. Finally, when she reveals sexual harassment by her former gymnastics coach, her despair lifts, and she's able to break through to rediscover her joy and power. S.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine