The Song of Us

April 15, 2023
Two seventh grade Boston girls meet in poetry club, fall in love, fight, and find their way back to each other in this verse novel. Even though "Love at First Sight is not a thing," Olivia and new girl Eden quickly become friends and then more. But Eden, whose mom has left and whose dad is homophobic, wants to keep their relationship secret. Eden also becomes part of a tightknit group of girls she names the Crash. After one of their parties, Olivia hurls a misogynistic slur at Eden and breaks up with her. Regretful, Olivia later comes up with a scheme to win Eden back: a poetry night where she will perform a poem of apology. Both girls are largely without supportive adult guidance--Olivia's mother has depression, and her avoidant dad works long hours--so they make mistakes and correct them as best they can, relying on poetry, music, and friends to fill in the gaps. Their personalities shine through their beautifully crafted poems, full of aches, worries, and joys. Three final poems, set a few months later, provide a coda and some closure. Olivia's poems are aligned left, Eden's are aligned right; drafts of Olivia's apology poems appear on lined paper in a spiral-bound notebook. Both girls are coded White; Olivia's best friend is trans. Thirteen-year-old love at its finest. (Verse fiction. 11-14)

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April 10, 2023
Immediate-feeling verse traces painful self-discovery and heady first love in Fussner’s debut, a queer retelling of “Orpheus and Eurydice.” When white-presenting seventh graders Eden and Olivia meet at the school poetry club that Olivia cofounded, they feel a simultaneous pull toward one another. Their secret relationship quickly blossoms into a deep, consuming first love, but their connection fractures during a heated argument about a Halloween party. Olivia hatches a plan to win Eden back via the power of love poems as the two struggle separately with identity, fitting in and friendships, and challenging parental situations involving Olivia’s mother’s depression and Eden’s emotionally abusive father. Tracing the experiences of two kids with limited control over their lives, snappy verse embodies the girls’ achingly real alternating voices while thoughtfully considering topics such as coming out, mental health, parental abuse, and peer pressure. While prior knowledge of the myth isn’t essential to understanding the story, those familiar will pick up on subtle nods, including heartfelt performance as a path to regaining lost love. Hand this yearning-tinged slice-of-life romance to fans of Ashley Herring Blake and K.A. Holt. Secondary characters are intersectionally diverse. Ages 10–up. Agent: Eric Smith, P.S. Literary Agency.

July 1, 2023
In this verse-novel retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, seventh-grade girls Olivia and Eden fall in "like-like" at first sight. Soon, they're meeting up to kiss almost daily and professing their love. But their (secret) happiness doesn't last long. Eden falls in with a reckless crowd, and Olivia reacts with strong, hurtful words. The two are driven further and further apart, but Olivia sets out to reunite them on a quest involving poetry. The source material lends itself to the seriousness with which the protagonists take their situation -- and beyond their romance and conflict, there are weighty elements at play, including Olivia's mother's depression and Eden's fear of her homophobic father. It all leads up to an ending that isn't perfectly happy, but one that gives hope to readers rooting for the two girls' connection. Poet Olivia's more deliberate voice ("I scramble to scribble / but my mind says wrong / to every word I write") is distinct from more impulsive music-lover Eden's ("This girl is / a power ballad: / bold, clever, all confidence / joy at full volume"); both are accessible and often impassioned. Hand to middle-school readers ready to be swept up in emotion. Shoshana Flax

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2023
In this verse-novel retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, seventh-grade girls Olivia and Eden fall in "like-like" at first sight. Soon, they're meeting up to kiss almost daily and professing their love. But their (secret) happiness doesn't last long. Eden falls in with a reckless crowd, and Olivia reacts with strong, hurtful words. The two are driven further and further apart, but Olivia sets out to reunite them on a quest involving poetry. The source material lends itself to the seriousness with which the protagonists take their situation -- and beyond their romance and conflict, there are weighty elements at play, including Olivia's mother's depression and Eden's fear of her homophobic father. It all leads up to an ending that isn't perfectly happy, but one that gives hope to readers rooting for the two girls' connection. Poet Olivia's more deliberate voice ("I scramble to scribble / but my mind says wrong / to every word I write") is distinct from more impulsive music-lover Eden's ("This girl is / a power ballad: / bold, clever, all confidence / joy at full volume"); both are accessible and often impassioned. Hand to middle-school readers ready to be swept up in emotion.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)