You Go First

Charlotte Lockard is pretty secure in her life in the Philadelphia suburbs until her dad has a massive heart attack.  As she struggles to deal with her anxiety about her father's health, things at school are changing in ways she can't control.  Her best friend is not really acting like a friend at all.  She's not too concerned about Charlotte's dad, and she's more interested in hanging out a new group of girls than her GT supposed best friend. 

Now that her dad is in the hospital, she wishes she had spent more time playing Scrabble with him than hanging out with her "friends."  She still has one Scrabble opponent, though.  She's been playing online with Ben for a couple of years, and the two of them vie for the top spot on the leaderboard.

Ben Boxer lives in Lanester, Louisiana.  It's his first year in middle school, and he's a little small and socially awkward.  He's obsessed with Harry Potter and presidential trivia, and he's determined to make his mark on middle school.  When he decides to run for student council, he becomes a target for bullies.

Charlotte and Ben have similar struggles to overcome, and they will both see their worlds realigned, but maybe change is not so bad in the end.

This new book by Erin Entrada Kelly was a bit of a disappoint for me.  Separately, both of the stories are great.  I was totally involved with both Charlotte and Ben, but the two stories never successfully intertwined for me.  I think this would have been a more successful book had it just focused on one character or worked harder to connect the two protagonists.  This is especially frustrating since a large focus of the book is on social connections.  That said, there are a lot of kids who will relate to these characters, and I will definitely recommend it to kids.