Gr 4–7—Fawn Creek, LA, isn't the kind of place where much changes, so the local students are instantly intrigued
when Orchid arrives. This story shakes up small-town story tropes by showing the realities of life in a small, poor
town, and the limitations the characters face; Fawn Creek itself also feels alive, the setting as much a character as
the children.

This book reminded me of a cross between [b:The Hundred Dresses|42369|The Hundred Dresses|Eleanor Estes|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476941110l/42369._SX50_.jpg|1000219] and [b:Stargirl|22232|Stargirl (Stargirl, #1)|Jerry Spinelli|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1335947642l/22232._SX50_.jpg|963221]. Both of those books were influential for me when I was young. Naturally, I loved this.

EEK does a lot of neat things narratively. Here are a few that stood out to me:

1. She tells the story from different points of view using close third-person narration. I'm a big fan of this, even though sometimes it took me a minute to figure out whose head I was in.

2. She throws a lot of characters at you quickly. In fact, for the first chunk of the book I was having trouble keeping all the students straight. But slowly they all came into focus for me and it felt intentional. Like in the beginning the reader is like Orchid trying to get to know everyone and how they relate to each other.

3. She breaks up the narrative with little scenes of partnerships during science class. This was super fun and I looked forward to those partner scenes and enjoyed them. Especially Daniel anybody.

4. In some ways Orchid is the main character, but she is also mysterious. This is the way the book most reminded me of Stargirl and The Hundred Dresses. Orchid = the unusual girl who arrives and changes everyone's perspectives and then departs. There's such a delicate balance here of making Orchid as a character feel real and unreal at the same time:

We never know her real name.
She gets the last word with her "I Am" poem.
She has a full backstory.
There's no hint about her future.

5. The buildup to the dance kept me reading. (I read this in about 2.5 hours in one sitting.) It's such a classic school story plot with the climax at a school dance, but you know the classics are classic for a reason. When the drama and fun went down at the dance it felt expected but also satisfying.

On the critical side, I didn't love that Renni was like pure villain energy. But EEK put a lot into understanding Janie's interiority and I saw Renni as an extreme version of Janie. So it's not as if the book is about bad kids vs. good kids. Other than Renni all of the kids were realistically complicated.

I think EEK could have a Newbery threepeat with this book. It's probably my favorite of hers next to [b:Lalani of the Distant Sea|41180656|Lalani of the Distant Sea|Erin Entrada Kelly|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566702544l/41180656._SY75_.jpg|56573768]. ( )

6/10, looking back at this book it wasn't a good middle grade novel and I highly doubt that I'd pick up this book again but I haven't read her other books like Hello, Universe and We Dream of Space and they sound more promising and intriguing as this, where do I even begin. It starts off with 12 characters living in a town called Fawn Creek, hence the name and I found it hard to keep track of every single one of them but at least there's a page with all of their names on it but anyways nothing ever changes there until a new character called Orchid Mason arrives. She was different from everyone else because she claims that she visited New York and even Paris and that impressed them which happens only a few pages after the introduction of Fawn Creek; I liked that part because it shows the tight knit community of it and all the people there know each other. It however quickly got tedious to read as it was funny and charming at first however as it dragged on I started to not enjoy it and towards the end some of the characters visited Orchid's home, turns out that she just moved from town to town and never actually visited New York and Paris; I wondered why would she lie about that just to make herself feel better or something along the lines of that but anyways the ending just petered out and wrapped up the book on a low note. ( )

Fawn Creek, Louisiana is a town so small that there are only 12 children in the entire seventh-grade class and they've all known each other since kindergarten. That is, until newcomer Orchid Mason shows up at their school with tales of her life before Fawn Creek in far-flung places like Paris and New York.

This was a strange book. The author is no hack so the book is well-written. But it's somehow got a large scope (13 middle school students all as more-or-less main characters) and a small stage (tiny town with tiny problems) all at the same time. Nothing really happens in the book, other than a local dance. Yet at the same time, characters make movements toward growth as people accepting of themselves and others.

Despite having a bit of climactic moment with the fight that breaks out at the dance, the ending just kind of fizzles out. I don't like that many things were introduced just to be left up in the air or not fully explained. The book somehow feels fairly innocent for seventh graders (although likely the actual audience of readers would be children slightly younger), but then the last few chapters throw around concepts and words including "junkie," "prostitute," and "prison," without going into any follow-up about whether any of those rumors are true. In general, the adults in the town are useless, either not paying attention or not being supportive so there's nothing really guiding the children in the book nor the ones reading it.

While I don't think this was a bad book per se, I struggle to think of anyone I would recommend it to as I think there are far better realistic fiction books for a middle-grade audience out there already -- some even by this very same author! ( )

While this features an extremely small class of kids who’ve grown up together (along with one newcomer who intrigues everyone), it’s still a fairly large cast of characters to throw at a reader, it greatly helps that it’s clear whose point of view you’re in at any given moment and the characters have such distinct personalities and issues that it doesn’t take long before you’re able to keep who’s who straight in your head.

So many books, particularly the romances I read idealize small town life, admittedly, I kind of do, too, but it was refreshing to see a different take on how that “smallness” may affect some people, especially kids.

Bullying and self-esteem are central to this story, the cruel way these kids treat one another is cringe-inducing at times and sadly realistic. All of that means this isn’t the most fun read, however, it has its heartening moments when a parent steps up to support her child, when a boy likes the unexpected girl, when kids unite in aid of another, and when a truth comes out and a true friend stays.

As mentioned there are several points of view in this novel yet it’s absent the point of view of a key character who I longed to hear more from outside of how others saw her and in a similar vein, in the end, where there is semi-closure for some characters, I was left wanting more when it came to that same character. Intellectually, I can see where a lack of tidiness in an ending is life-like, however, my heart was desperate for at least some hint as to how this character who I cared about fared following a traumatic event, the book felt borderline incomplete without that follow up. ( )