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Searching... Salem Main Library | TEEN Buxbaum, J. | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
" What to Say Next reminds readers that hope can be found in unexpected places." -Bustle
From the New York Times bestselling author of Tell Me Three Things comes a story about two struggling teenagers who find an unexpected connection just when they need it most. Nicola Yoon, the bestselling author of Everything, Everything , calls it "charming, funny, and deeply affecting ."
Sometimes a new perspective is all that is needed to make sense of the world.
KIT: I don't know why I decide not to sit with Annie and Violet at lunch. It feels like no one here gets what I'm going through. How could they? I don't even understand.
DAVID: In the 622 days I've attended Mapleview High, Kit Lowell is the first person to sit at my lunch table. I mean, I've never once sat with someone until now. "So your dad is dead," I say to Kit, because this is a fact I've recently learned about her.
When an unlikely friendship is sparked between relatively popular Kit Lowell and socially isolated David Drucker, everyone is surprised, most of all Kit and David. Kit appreciates David's blunt honesty--in fact, she finds it bizarrely refreshing. David welcomes Kit's attention and her inquisitive nature. When she asks for his help figuring out the how and why of her dad's tragic car accident, David is all in. But neither of them can predict what they'll find. Can their friendship survive the truth?
Named a Best Young Adult Novel of the Year by POPSUGAR
"Charming, funny, and deeply affecting all at the same time." -Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star
"Heartfelt, charming, deep, and real. I love it with all my heart." -Jennifer Niven, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places
Author Notes
Julie Buxbaum is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School. She is the author of The Opposite of Love, After You, and the New York Times bestseller, Tell Me Three Things.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up-After Kit's father dies, she finds herself receding and unable to keep up with the pressures of social life. Unable to deal with the mundane daily gossip and social climbing, she decides to sit with David, an outcast, someone she knows will not pester her. Slowly, over the course of a few weeks, the two find they have more in common than they realized. They begin to trust each other with secrets that they can't tell anyone else, and Kit enlists David to help her figure out the exact reason her father died. Little do they know how much it will complicate things. The text is wonderfully narrated by Kirby Heyborne and Abigail Revasch. Heyborne's flat monotone voice perfectly fits the complicated character of David, and Revasch's narration is young and refreshing. VERDICT Compelling, uplifting, and utterly engaging. For fans of Rainbow Rowell and Jennifer Niven.-Erin Cataldi, Johnson County Public Library, Franklin, IN © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
One month after the death of her father in a car accident, high school junior Kit Lowell is beginning to realize that "grief not only morphs time, but space too." Distancing herself from her two best friends, who are back to talking about things like prom, Kit begins spending lunch with her socially isolated classmate David Drucker, appreciating his awkwardness and blunt honesty. David has always considered Kit to be the most beautiful girl at school, but his Asperger's syndrome has left him largely alienated and their interactions brief. As they grow closer, revelations about the car accident and the contents of David's notebook (filled with commentary about his peers) threaten their tenuous relationship. Buxbaum (Tell Me Three Things) uses split first-person narration to give readers striking insight into both teens. Unlike his peers and the school administration, readers will easily see David as a complex, brilliant individual. Discussion of Kit's family and heritage (her mother is Indian) bring additional complexity and depth to this portrait of grief and recovery. Ages 12-up. Agent: Jennifer Joel, ICM. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Two alienated teens meet in the high-school cafeteria: David likes numbers and routines, takes things literally, and has trouble reading people in social situations; Kit's father died in a car accident a month before, and she can no longer stand her friends' inane conversation. Buxbaum's empathy for her protagonists and careful, stereotype-resisting characterizations make David and Kit's eventual romance feel natural. (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Opposites attract after tragedy strikes.Autistic white teen David Drucker spends every lunch period eating alone. When Indian-American popular girl Kit Lowell joins him one day she's just looking for a quiet place to sit. It's been one month since Kit's father, a white dentist, died in a terrible car accident, but Kit is still flailing. As the two teens get to know one another and eat lunch together each day, they find themselves bringing out their own best qualities. Slowly but surely, romance blooms. There's a warmth and ease to their relationship that the author captures effortlessly. Each chapter alternates perspective between Kit and David, and each one is fully rendered. The supporting characters are less well served, particularly Kit's first-generation-immigrant mother. There are two major complications in Kit's story, both involving her workaholic mother, and the lack of development defuses some potential fireworks. The central relationship is so charming and engaging that readers will tolerate the adequate tertiary characters. Less tolerable is a late-in-the-game reveal about Dr. Lowell's accident that shifts the novel's tone to a down note that juxtaposes poorly with everything that came before. The author pulls out in the final few pages, but it still leaves a sour taste in the mouth. A pleasant romance hindered by some curious choices. (Romance. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.