Dear Sweet Pea

When her parents tell her they are getting a divorce, it comes as a complete surprise to Sweet Pea.  She really had no inkling her dad was gay, but that does create a problem for her parents' relationship. They are trying to ease the transition by creating identical homes on the same street.  Her dad's new house is just a few hundred yards away, but it just doesn't feel right.

She also has to sit behind her ex-best friend, Kiera at school.  Kiera seems to have a physical reaction to everything Sweet Pea says or does.  Luckily she has her new best friend Oscar, and her cat Cheese to help her through these challenging times.

The house separating her parents' new identical homes belongs to Miss Flora Mae, the town eccentric who also writes an advice column for the local paper.  When Miss Flora Mae has to leave town unexpectedly to take care of her sister, she asks Sweet Pea to help facilitate her column by getting the letters to her and her answers to the paper.

At first, the house seems creepy, but it doesn't take long for Sweet Pea to feel at home with all the house plants and Aretha Franklin.  It's when she kind of accidentally reads one of the Dear Miss Flora Mae I letters that she might be maybe crossing the line.  She's pretty sure she knows who it's from, and the temptation to answer it is too much.  Thus begins Sweet Pea's clandestine career as an advice columnist, but giving advice is never as clear cut as it seems.

Julie Murphy's new book is her middle grade debut, and it is an absolute treat.  It's a body positive book about a big girl just living her life like everyone else.  Her weight is not a symptom of trauma or a reaction to her parents' divorce.  It's just part of who she is, and it's a problem she has to navigate in the everyday world.  Sweet Pea's friends and parents are fleshed out characters with lives and feelings of their own.  I'm so glad I got the ARC at TLA!  The rest of you will have to wait until October.