Spin with Me

Starred review from November 1, 2020

Gr 5-7-Polonsky (Gracefully Grayson) gives life to first love in this novel. When Essie moves from Missouri to North Carolina with her father, she's not particularly thrilled. Things between her parents are strange, and her mom is almost completely out of touch. But when Essie meets Ollie, sparks fly and she finds herself settling right into her new life. As the romance between Essie and Ollie blossoms, so do the conversations about gender. Ollie is nonbinary, and as they've embraced their gender identity, they feel like it's become their defining characteristic. Essie and Ollie struggle with labels, and Essie especially craves the organization and structure labels can provide. Ollie wants to just exist, recognizing the help and barriers labels have given their life so far. Essie and Ollie are both middle class and white. Essie describes many characters of color, and specifically addresses the diversity of her old and new homes. Ollie's parents are extremely supportive, as are other adult figures in Ollie's life, who are themselves pansexual and nonbinary. While this is very much a book about gender and sexuality, it is a love story that readers will adore. Those who haven't flipped ahead will get a fun surprise at the halfway mark, when things switch from Essie's to Ollie's point of view. VERDICT Hopeful and real, this story is electric. There's a lot to love here; recommended as a first purchase everywhere.-Taylor Worley, Springfield P.L., OR

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2021
Grades 5-8 Essie is not looking forward to starting her semester in a new city, but when her father encourages her to befriend Ollie, the nonbinary child of a coworker, things start to look up. Though they get off to an awkward start, soon a deeper, more complex relationship develops between the two. Ollie's LGBTQ+ activism forces Essie to look deeper at her assumptions around gender and sexuality--of which some of the storytelling feels particularly aimed at cisgender readers who have not been exposed to LGBTQ+ identities--though a lack of communication makes their chances of a romance more than a little bit shaky. Essie and Ollie are both white, but their friends Savannah (Black) and Luciana (Latina) bring some diversity to the cast of characters. The narrative is split between Essie and Ollie, though in two distinct halves of the text, rather than alternating back-and-forth throughout the novel. Polonsky (Gracefully Grayson, 2014) has written a hopeful and insightful text for young readers to explore gender and sexual identity through an enticing story of friendship, family, and first love.

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Esther, who goes by Essie, moves to a new state and falls in love. Essie relocates to North Carolina with her dad for a semester as part of his job as a professor. She says a temporary goodbye to her old friends but soon meets nonbinary Ollie and develops a crush on them. Essie helps Ollie out with the school's LGBTQ+ club while starting to question her own orientation because of her feelings for Ollie. The narrative is split into two halves, the first narrated by Essie and the second by Ollie, which cover the same time span, helpfully marked by a day count. Gender identity forms a large part of the narrative, but Ollie's nonbinary gender is portrayed as a natural part of them rather than a big issue or wow moment. Ollie's relationship with their mother is adorable and heartwarming, with their mother using the rather sweet and gender-neutral "kiddo" to refer to them. Bigotry against Ollie is briefly addressed in one scene but is done so tactfully; it is clear that a great deal of empathy has gone into this narrative. The romance and chemistry between Essie and Ollie are also enjoyable. Essie and Ollie are both White while two of their mutual friends are Black and Latinx. A charming, feel-good LGBTQ+ story. (Fiction. 10-14)

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