Sean Griswold's Head

January 31, 2011
A chronic worrier, high school freshman Payton Gritas has just had a massive wrench thrown into her hyperorganized life: for six months her family has kept her father's multiple sclerosis diagnosis a secret from her. The school guidance counselor asks Payton to keep a journal about a "Focus Object" of her choosing, and she picks Sean Griswold's head, since he has sat in front of her in class for years. The drama begins when her boy-crazy best friend, Jac, decides that they should research Sean—and then starts playing matchmaker. Payton soon falls for sensitive Sean and begins to share his passion for cycling, but between her father's illness, her declining grades, and her faltering friendship with Jac, she isn't sure that she can let someone new into her life. Leavitt (the Princess for Hire series) delicately handles topics of illness, evolving relationships, and what it means to grow up. Payton's alternately sarcastic, snappy, and reflective narration ("The truth, I know, is that it's not my dad I'm really mad at. I'm mad at his disease") carries this insightful story. Ages 12–up.

February 15, 2011
Payton Gritas' world is turned upside down when she discovers her father has multiple sclerosis and that her parents and older brothers have kept the news from her for six months. Devastated, Payton is referred to the school counselor, who, within seconds of meeting her, instructs Payton to select a subject to focus on, other than her father's illness, and record her observations in a journal. Neither the therapeutic relationship nor the assignment makes much sense, but they get the plot rolling. Payton's random choice of "focus object" is the head of Sean Griswold, the boy seated ahead of her in biology. Egged on by her best friend, Jac, Payton researches Sean, and her attention evolves into a mutual attraction. Payton is likable and the writing brisk and amusing, but this offering from the author of Princess for Hire (2010), encumbered by too-visible plot contrivances, fails to convince. Complex, significant issues are raised but then accorded frustratingly superficial treatment. Payton's life and affluent lifestyle are barely affected by her father's illness; the biggest impact is cancellation of a family spring-break getaway to Florida. While she learns a few lessons about denial and selfishness in the abstract, she's protected from having to put them in practice. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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March 1, 2011

Gr 6-9-When 15-year-old Payton Gritas gives her family the silent treatment for withholding her father's MS diagnosis for six months, her parents request the aid of their daughter's guidance counselor, who assigns a focus object exercise. Payton chooses Sean Griswold's head because she and Sean have been linked by last name proximity since the third grade. Soon, with the help of her boy-crazy friend Jac, Payton gets to know Sean Griswold the person and the head. Interpersonal conflicts abound as the teen chooses to focus on avoidance rather than confronting the fear she is experiencing. In a balanced proportion of comedy and gravity, she comes to terms with her father's illness, deals with conflicts she has created with Jac, and eventually opens up her heart to a little romance. While the path that Leavitt paves for her protagonist is somewhat predictable, the likable characters will have girls gravitating toward the novel. Though the book takes a light look at a teenager coming to grips with a parent's serious illness, it is refreshing and realistic without being overwrought with angst.-Adrienne L. Strock, Maricopa County Library District, AZ

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.