Kissing in America

Starred review from April 6, 2015
In this indelible coming-of-age story, Rabb (Cures for Heartbreak) seamlessly weaves together multiple narratives: families coping with death, immigrants determined to make it in America, the power of education to transform lives, reality TV offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, first love, first heartbreak, and the conflicted, ardent passion of a mother/daughter relationship. After Eva’s father dies in a plane crash, she lives with an awareness that “the very worst thing you imagine, your biggest fear, does happen,” a fear she mitigates by avidly reading romance fiction. Eva’s mother, a women’s studies professor, disparages the books, but for 16-year-old Eva, “those feelings felt as real and true as any other feelings I’d ever felt. As real and true as grief.” A cross-country bus trip expands Eva’s world as she and her best friend Annie encounter people who “never met a Jewish person before” and discover that “real-life cowboys were better than fictional ones.” Sprinkled with the poetry Eva reads and writes, this story makes for a hilarious, thought-provoking, wrenching, and joyful quest. Ages 14–up. Agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management.

Starred review from March 1, 2015
Best friends leave New York City for the first time and take a transformative road trip to Los Angeles. Sixteen-year-old Eva Roth's penchant for reading romance novels (118 at last count) is termed "your ultimate rebellion" by her mom, a women's studies professor. Eva is a poet, and she used to write alongside her beloved father, but when he died in a plane crash two years earlier, she stopped writing. Rabb eloquently gets grief right in this compassionate, perceptive, and poignant story, deftly leavened with irreverent humor, of a girl in conflict with her mother. Poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Adrienne Rich, Nikki Giovanni, Marie Howe, and others are so beautifully integrated into the first-person narrative that the poetry comes alive. Eva's burgeoning, heart-stopping relationship with senior Will Freeman initially helps her begin to find a way out of grief, as does her smart, empathetic best friend, Annie Kim, with whom she can share the absurdity of it all. But Will unexpectedly moves to California, and with Annie's participation, Eva comes up with a truly creative road-trip plan-one in which America, land of endless possibilities, serves as a backdrop for unexpected love. And love is really what this remarkable story is all about. Wise, inspiring, and ultimately uplifting-not to be missed. (Fiction. 14 & up)

March 1, 2015

Gr 9 Up-Two years ago, Eva Roth's father was killed in a plane crash, which is still being investigated. Eva's grief is as fresh as it was the day he died, but her mother seems determined to move on and expects Eva to do the same. As her mother becomes increasingly uncommunicative and obsessed with work, Eva tries to escape her pain by focusing on preparing for college; studying with her best friend, Annie; and losing herself in the pages of romance novels. When the teen is paired with high school heartthrob, Will, in an after-school tutoring session, she discovers that he, too, has lost a family member. Their shared understanding of loss and pain draws them into a relationship that is abruptly halted when Will has to move from New York to Los Angeles. Following the advice of her favorite romance novelist, Eva determines to find a way to go "get her man." She convinces the brilliant Annie to enter the two of them in an academic teen game show that promises a trip to Los Angeles and a $20,000 scholarship to the winner. Together they embark on a cross-country adventure that will test their friendship, and ultimately bring Eva to a deeper understanding of herself and her family. With a full cast of multidimensional characters, this novel explores the complex nature of relationships and the many faces of grief and love with equal parts humor and poignancy. VERDICT A first purchase for most YA collections.-Cary Frostick, formerly at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, Falls Church, VA

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2015
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* One kiss. That's all it took for 16-year-old Eva's fantasy world of poetry and romance novels to become real. Sharing the grief of her father's plane-crash death and her mother's refusal to mourn with Will makes the memories and frustrations less harsh because, just as her romances promise, love conquers all. Until Will unexpectedly moves to California. How to see Will again? Have brilliant best friend Annie enter the Smartest Girl in America contest, be her companion lifeline, travel to L.A. to the competitionand just happen to see Will in the process. Thus begins the girls' rollicking, eye-opening cross-country bus adventure from New York City to Tennessee, Texas, Arizona, and finally to the competition's TV set in California. This is a smart teen's novel. Poems abound, gracing each section and quoted in special moments and memories. Annie is drop-dead smart, and Will is subtly intelligent and more attuned to the world's harsh realities. But all Rabb's characters are authentic and complex, including the adults who are trying desperately to do the right thing for themselves and the young people around them, sometimes awkwardly and occasionally very badly. Rabb knows the perfect point to interject humor to diffuse a potentially devastating situationand there are many!a leavening of sorts to the reality that death and love inexplicitly alter the landscape of a person's life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)