Weekend Pick for August 2, 2024

Weekend Pick for August 2, 2024

​Welcome my friend and colleague, Susan James! Susan appears with suggestions here quite often throughout the year because reading is not just passion, but a huge part of her life. Dr. Susan Densmore-James is a professor at the University of West Florida.  She is the Director of the Emerald Coast National Writing Project and is known as The Book Dealer due to her work with authors and our youth.

Keeping Pace by Laurie Morrison​

“I think of the thing he told me his grandma said about those award plaques–that they teach kids that what we achieve is more important than who we are.”   

Occasionally, I receive a book from a publishing house that completely wins my heart and gives me all the feels, and, more importantly, I know it will be a hot commodity amongst students in a classroom.  Keeping Pace by Laurie Morrison is one of those gems of a book.  ​

I am 100% sure that as a middle-grade or YA author, writing about loss would be a daunting challenge. How do adults write about something as complicated as loss in a manner relevant to a middle-grade student?  If a book is irrelevant to our youth, it can be almost patronizing. We often forget this:  our children and young adults deal with loss of all kinds, usually at a young age, so we must provide opportunities for students to read about and discuss important topics like loss.  There is no better way to do so than by utilizing an engaging book. Teens are learning how to recognize their feelings and place those into words that can be understood by those around them.  Well, Laurie Morrison found the secret formula for this:  providing a story that contains a young female AND male, and add in a dash of the possibility for love, all the while gently easing readers into the topic of loss.

Laurie Morrison

Keeping Pace revolves around Grace, a young girl who strives to be the best. She grapples with the recent divorce of her parents, a situation that many young readers may find familiar. Seeking her father's attention, Grace sets her sights on becoming the Top Scholar of the 8th grade, a goal her father has always emphasized. Her older sister, Celia, also feels the strain of their father's expectations, adding to the household's pain after the sudden announcement of their parents’ divorce. ​

Spurred on by her father’s wish for Grace’s name to be displayed on the Scholar of the Year plaque, Grace seems to thrive on this competition despite it taking all of her energy.  As the school year is quickly ending, it is apparent it will come down to either Grace or Jonah, her once-best friend turned arch-nemesis.  Their daily sparring takes up much time and energy during the day, but what Grace finds completely confusing is why Jonah looks so stinking cute when she feels such hostility towards him.  How can those two feelings be felt at the same time?  This is a quandary that even plaques adults, and Morrison expertly addresses it. ​

Sadly, Jonah has endured another kind of loss: the death of his father.  Morrison keeps the reader (even this adult reader) wanting to discover how this heart-felt narrative will end.  Who will be the Top Scholar and have his or her name on that plaque?  Will these two mend their now broken relationship?  And speaking of things broken and lost, what about the mailbox that used to be Jonah’s and Grace’s place for their secret  messages?  
 
I applaud Laurie Morrison for taking on tough topics in a manner that will completely engage our youth, and I absolutely adore the wide range of authentic characters Laurie has created. The idea of youth living in a home with one parent allows for an extended family to be introduced in a distinctive way, teaching the reader about the uniqueness of us all in our challenges and successes and sending this message loud and clear:  we are more than our successes. Additionally, this book is equal parts heart wrecking and heartwarming, which when added to the slow build of a romance is exactly what keeps our youth coming back for more! ​

Come back for more exciting reading suggestions!