You and Me and Him

May 4, 2015
By junior year Maggie is resigned to being the overweight girl who will never be an A-lister. But she doesn’t dwell on it (“I don’t sit alone in my bedroom playing Billie Holiday albums while drowning my sorrows in a carton of ice cream. Okay, once—maybe twice—a year, but not every weekend” she says as the book opens), and she has a great job at a record store. She also has a faithful best friend in Nash, who shares her taste in “teachers, music, art, literature, and boys.” Conflicts emerge when “new guy” Tom enters the scene, making Maggie’s and Nash’s hearts flutter. Maggie wants to stay loyal to Nash, but is it too much of a sacrifice? In this compassionate first novel, Dinnison adeptly portrays the rising and falling hopes within an unconventional love triangle. Maggie suffers some tough blows, causing her to take a hard look at herself and question the stereotyped image of a “fat” girl created by other people. Readers will follow her eagerly as she finds her voice and identity. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary Agency.

April 1, 2015

Gr 8 Up-At first glance this debut novel rehashes many of the archetypes common in young adult literature. Even its protagonist, Maggie, self-reflexively references these cliches. She, for example, is "[t]he fat kid who bakes. So cliche." She works at a cool but underused record store where she blasts songs by The Smiths. Her best friend Nash is not only gay but also fashion conscious and sassy. Both are misfits in their Pacific Northwestern small town. But You and Me and Him contains kernels of complexity that are slowly revealed to readers willing to wade in. There is an unrequited love triangle (Nash likes Tom, Tom possibly likes Maggie, Maggie likes Tom but is scared to lose Nash), and each character's expectations come into play in various aspects of the narrative. All of the protagonists, but especially Maggie, are pushed to ask themselves what expectations other people have of them and whether or not they have accepted these as their own. In the end, Maggie and the others become fully realized characters whose actions cannot be predicted by a YA lit algorithm. You and Me and Him is similar to other books that balance self-reflection with comic relief, such as James Howe's The Misfits (S. & S., 2001) and Robin Brande's Fat Cat (Knopf, 2009). VERDICT A solid addition, especially for readers looking for a bittersweet romance.-Jaclyn Anderson, Madison County Library System, MS

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2015
The arrival of crushworthy new student Tom drives a wedge between Maggie, who is straight, and her best friend, Nash, who is gay. Neither Maggie nor Nash has ever kissed anyone or had a boyfriend, a situation Maggie attributes to her being fat and Nash, to the lack of out gay teens in their Seattle suburb. On the first day of school, the pair spots Tom, and Nash calls dibs, a running joke based on the assumption that neither Nash nor Maggie will have a chance. When Tom unexpectedly does start hanging out with them, particularly with Maggie, both Maggie's friendship with Nash and her certainty that she is undesirable are challenged. Maggie's generosity with baked goods and her struggles against her mom's food-related nagging add some depth to the story, but readers are privy to frustratingly little interiority despite the first-person narration. They see Maggie have her first kiss and tell off the gym teacher who continually harps on her size, but her experiences of these moments remain opaque. Stilted and sometimes clunkily expository dialogue also reveals little, making several of the book's many interpersonal conflicts more confusing than compelling. The (mostly) fat-positive message is important, but its delivery falters. (Fiction. 12-18)

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May 15, 2015
Grades 8-11 Talk about upsetting the balance. New guy Tom arrives at school and throws a grenade into the tight, sheltering knot of friendship Maggie and Nash share. Both outliers, Nash struggles for emotional safety as a gay teen, and Maggie knows she missed the popularity train a few years back when kids started getting mean and her weight defined her. The two have had each other's back for years, and their tender, witty exchanges imbue both characters with depth and liveliness. Might Tom be a prospect for Nash? But does Tom actually like Maggie? The love triangle tests Maggie and Nash's loyalty to each other, and the debacle quickly spirals to a fever pitch. Maggie's musings on being overweight and her verbal battles with her mother on the subject offer painful testimony about feeling unacceptable, but in a heartily satisfying counterpoint, she brims with inner strength. Tom, on the other hand, occasionally seems a little too good and glib to be true. A powerful tale with an emotional rawness that will resonate with readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2015
Sixteen-year-old Maggie is overweight, but she's not one of those shrinking violet fat girls. She has passions for hiking and baking, a great record-store job, and a loyal best friend -- the artistic, sardonic, openly gay Nash. Neither Nash nor Maggie fits in with the rest of their small-town classmates, but their tight friendship has always made life bearable. Then Nash invites Tom -- the friendly, flirtatious new kid -- into their inner circle. Maggie plays the supportive friend, hoping that Tom might be the guy for Nash. When Tom instead turns his attention toward Maggie, their maybe-romance threatens to destroy Maggie and Nash's friendship. Nash likes Tom; Tom likes Maggie; Maggie likes Tom, but she's worried he's not serious -- it's a confusing tangle of friendships and romances that unravels when Maggie and Tom's dalliance is discovered. Dinnison maintains a pleasantly breezy tone throughout the story, even if the dialogue often sounds too perfectly crafted to be realistic. Firmly at the center stands a protagonist whose likable voice and authentic struggle to accept herself and find love in a world that would rather she shrink back -- not to mention her crackling chemistry with Tom -- lend this fresh, contemporary romantic comedy considerable appeal. jessica tackett macdonald

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)