Fly Back, Agnes

December 1, 2019
At odds with her changing self and family, one summer Agnes Moon pretends to be someone different--and meets others with secrets. Twelve-year-old Vermonter Agnes, who has her white mother's red hair and freckles and her biracial (white/Korean) dad's dark eyes and light-brown skin, really hates her new curves and the idea of "becoming a woman." She also feels left out: Her divorced parents, her older sister, and her best friend all seem to have moved on to other relationships. A first small lie allows her to spend the summer with her father. But he's busy; she has plenty of time to explore. The lies multiply as she introduces herself as Chloe from Kansas, first to Stella and her grandmother at the general store and then to Fin, the attractive boy visiting nearby Fly Back Farm, and Harriet Hooper, the farm's owner. As they gradually reveal some of their secrets, Agnes becomes increasingly uncomfortable in her own deceit but holds out until she collapses spectacularly and publicly. Having been exposed to the decisions made by and for teen mothers and intersex babies, as well as to someone who has been seriously depressed, she's more willing to face her own personal and family concerns. While there's no doubt many readers will find Agnes' discontent familiar, it's hard to avoid the feeling that these secondary characters and their concerns exist primarily for Agnes' enlightenment. Except for Agnes and her dad, characters seem to be default white. Important issues float through clouds of self-pity. (Fiction. 9-13)

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February 1, 2020

Gr 4 Up-Fifth grade graduate Agnes struggles with her changing body, her fractured family, even an old-fashioned name she doesn't feel fits her. When her steamroller of a mother announces a harebrained summer trip with her new boyfriend, Agnes crafts a lie so she can stay with her college professor father in another town. One lie quickly leads to others. In her new reality she is Chloe, a 14-year-old actress with a perfect family. With her father working on his PhD, Agnes has the freedom to roam the charming rural town. She meets a cadre of friendly people, including Stella and the enigmatic Fin, also visiting and with a mysterious background. Agnes becomes a friend and confidant to the teenagers, each of whom have family issues not dissimilar to her own. Everyone in town seems to have a secret and they all reveal themselves to Agnes, not realizing she is keeping so many of her own. Atkinson captures Agnes's innocence and reluctance to embrace change while desiring to be a different person in a different situation. Though her mother's character is drawn larger than life, interesting and unique supporting characters help bring the town down to earth. VERDICT Issues of peer acceptance, popularity, and the repercussions of divorce are delicately explored in this sweet and tender tale. Will resonate with middle grade and early high school students, especially those at a crossroads in their lives.-Lee De Groft, Jamestown High School, Williamsburg, VA

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 24, 2020
In a story about deep change, 12-year-old Agnes Moon, who inherited her part-Korean father’s skin tone and her red-headed mother’s freckles, has lately felt out of control. She’s dealing with microaggressions and her best friend’s betrayal at school, her parents’ divorce and older sister’s estrangement at home, and her developing preteen body. When her mother announces that they are moving from Vermont to Kansas for the summer, despite Agnes’s having already made plans, she tells a lie to spend the break with her father in the Vermont house that he’s watching for a friend. But her dad’s responsibilities leave him often busy, giving her ample time alone. Free to pass herself off as anyone she chooses, Agnes invents a new persona: Chloe, an actor and dancer from Topeka. As she makes friends and absorbs their confidences, as with intersex Fin, who is frequently gossiped about, her initially freeing lies leave Agnes feeling more alone than ever. Atkinson (The Sugar Mountain Snow Ball) focuses on Agnes’s turbulent inner life, but the other characters are more thinly drawn, limiting the novel’s emotional depth. Ages 9–10.

February 15, 2020
Grades 4-7 When 12-year-old Agnes Moon's mother, Mo, announces that they'll be spending the summer in Kansas with Mo's boyfriend and his weird kid, Agnes quietly snaps. Furious, Agnes spins a little lie that gets her out of the whole ordeal. Now she's housesitting a beautiful home (and adorable dog!) with her dad all summer. Since he's busy working on his PhD during the day, Agnes has ample time to explore, which is how she ends up in the neighboring town of Renew. There, she makes new friends and reinvents herself as Chloe, a girl with the life and family of her dreams, a liberating feeling until the lies turn on her. Atkinson stuffs a few too many issues into this book, with divorce and blended families, puberty and Agnes getting her period, an intersex friend and best-friend drama all squeezed into one summer. However, readers may well identify with one or more of Agnes' experiences. Place this with books like Karen Rivers' A Possibility of Whales (2018) and Kim Harrington's Revenge of the Red Club (2019).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)