Crushing It

by Joanne Levy

Aladdin

978-1-4814-6473-4

240 pp.

Ages 9-13

January 2017
Reviewed from advance reading copy

In a middle-grade twist on the classic tale of Cyrano de Bergerac’s clandestine wooing of the fair Roxanne for the tongue-tied Christian, Joanne Levy, author of the very funny Small Medium at Large (Bloomsbury, 2012), again confirms that first loves aren’t always those of the innocent simplicity suggested.

My stomach had started doing flip-flops because he was...different.  I couldn't figure out exactly what it was, but something inside me told me things were weird.  Not that he was acting differently; just he made me nervous.  Like I wanted to be around him and not be around him at the same time. (pg. 8-9)

Twelve-year-old Kat and her next door neighbour and friend Tyler have a lot in common, like playing Zombie Slashers, watching anime movies, reading fantasy books, and volunteering at a local animal shelter.  But Tyler, who’d previously attended private school, is now on everyone’s radar in Grade 7, including that of Kat’s best friend and cousin Olivia.  Not seeing herself as anything but a warthog, because of her braces, glasses and two-left feet, compared to the pretty and graceful gazelle that is Olivia, Kat agrees to help her cousin get Tyler’s attention and an invite to the school’s first dance.  So begins Project Ty-Livia which involves Kat providing Olivia with cheat sheets about Tyler, pretending to be Olivia playing online video games, and prompting her cousin with the right answers to Tyler’s questions. Tyler may start to see Olivia differently but it’s a farce with Kat attempting to project her nerdy self on her popularity-driven cousin while starting to realize that she too is crushing on Tyler.

Of course Crushing It is all about the angst of that first crush. By having two very different girls crushing on the same boy, Joanne Levy demonstrates, with her trademark humour, that infatuations, whether overt or unspoken, can be overwhelming and embarassing but more so when you don’t remain true to yourself.  Thankfully, unlike Cyrano, Kat and Olivia and Tyler all find happy endings, though not those they first perceived as appropriate or attempted to manipulate.

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(A version of this review was originally written for and published in Quill & Quire, as noted in the citation below.)

Kubiw, H. (2017, March). [Review of the book Crushing It, by Joanne Levy]. Quill & Quire, 83 (2): 23.

Crushing It: Book launch (Hamilton, ON)

The very funny author

 Joanne Levy

who delighted readers with her 

Forest of Reading-nominated 

Small Medium at Large

by Joanne Levy

Bloomsbury Children's Books

978-1-59990-836-6

193 pp.

Ages 9-13

2012

Reviewed here

is back with another funny middle grade read

Crushing It

by Joanne Levy

Aladdin

978-1-4814-6473-4

240 pp.

Ages 9-13

January 2017

which she will launch 

on

Saturday, January 28, 2017

2-4 p.m.

at

Hamilton Public Library, Westdale Branch

955 King St. W.

Hamilton, ON

Joanne Levy promises a reading, a Q & A, swag, light refreshments and, of course, books for purchase and signing.

Although I can't share my review of Crushing It yet–read it, loved it, giggled repeatedly–I can reveal that it's a middle grade story of first crushes gone sideways, when twelve-year-old Kat ends up helping her cousin Olivia snare the boy next door, Tyler, who is so not into popularity-craving Olivia and more into Zombie-slashing gamer Kat.  If things can go wrong, they do, but with much hilarity, courtesy of Joanne Levy's funny (ha!ha!, not strange) writing.

The book is out today, though, so you can always purchase it now, read it and then bring it to the launch for an author's signature and some swag. Whatever way you do it, get the book, enjoy the story.