Snowsisters

February 1, 2018

Gr 9 Up-A week at camp provides time for some serious self reflection for two very different girls. Farm girl Tess and Manhattanite Soph meet as roommates in rural New Hampshire at a young women's writing conference. Soph, a lesbian who rarely hesitates to speak her mind, writes poetry while Tess, who is in a complicated relationship with a boy, writes fan fiction. Tess plans to join the military after high school and hopes this retreat will show her a bit about what life is like beyond her tiny town. What she finds are experiences that challenge her as a writer and as a person, pushing her to find her voice in more ways than one. Narrated by the protagonists in alternating chapters, the plot has potential, with an atmospheric setting filled with a diverse group of girls, but the execution is lacking. The large cast of characters is unmemorable, save trans-exclusionary feminist Chris who spends the entire novel spewing hate at Orly, who is transgender. Chris is constantly misgendering Orly, attempting to "investigate" her, and repeating how unsafe she feels. Tess and Soph do call her out and try to broker peace. Readers may be inclined to skip Tess's lackluster fan fiction and Soph's rather abysmal poetry. While the eventual ways Tess and Soph grow from their time together is meaningful (Tess finds her role as a leader and Soph begins to understand that not everyone can be loudly and openly out), getting there is a journey filled with largely forgettable and repetitive moments. VERDICT An additional purchase.-Amanda MacGregor, Parkview Elementary School, Rosemount, MN

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 15, 2018
Two lesbian teens with very different backgrounds meet at a writers' retreat.Tess is a poor, white Franco-American farm girl from a New Hampshire military family, an author of fan fiction who hopes to gain confidence before her West Point interview. Soph is an extremely rich, white, unwilling debutante from Manhattan, a poet aiming to impress the program director for her own college applications. Soph is out and proud, loudly political about feminism and the political imperative for everyone to claim their sexuality; Tess is closeted, unable to risk coming out before she's safely in the military. At the weeklong Young Women's Writing Conference, they grapple with social justice, writing, their own maturity, and first love. A transphobic attendee threatens a friend's safety, and though both protagonists learn to act as allies, the trans character looks out for herself, showing the cis girls the limits of their good intentions. Analogies between language and human interaction abound; one lovely vignette shows several girls offering different names for bread rolls from their own cultural backgrounds. Nuance is at the core of their journeys: context matters, and real leadership is harder than simply condemning those who make harmful choices. Unrealistically crafted dialogue is a distraction. An opening note directs interested readers to an online list of trigger warnings.In a narrative where learning a writer's craft fuels each coming-of-age, the clear literary metaphors for diversity, tradition, and modernity are both thematic and thoroughly satisfying. (Fiction. 13-17)

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