Written by Alison Hughes
RP Kids
978-0-7624-7312-0
192 pp.
Ages 8-12
August 2021
Diva is anything but. She's a quiet eleven-year-old who would prefer to read and write and dream up new feelings that need their own vocabulary, like "That feeling where you desperately want to be in your bed, with the covers pulled tight over your head..." (pg. 72) or "That awful, guilty feeling of helplessly almost hating your parent and knowing they don't have a clue at all" (pg. 112). What she doesn't like is over-the-top...anything. And now her effervescent, always over-the-top mother has fallen in love with a monstrosity of a pink castle, as has her nine-year-old brother Hero, and the family is moving.
Though Hero fits in and makes friends easily at their new school, it's so much harder for Diva, especially when her mother, thinking she's helping, tries to force a friendship with another sixth grader and their neighbour, Miranda Clay. But Diva knows Miranda's kind of bully: she's the mean girl who thinks she's better than others. Though it's often an under-the-breath comment or an eye roll, Diva knows that, "Silent bullies are still bullies"(pg. 70). Worse yet, Diva's mom doesn't see how she keeps embarrassing Diva when her over-the-top enthusiasm for everything, including her party-planning business with which Hero and Diva often help out. Though her dad understands how hard it may be for Diva, especially at school, he encourages her to get involved with some extracurricular activity. And so Diva auditions for the school production of The Wizard of Oz in which she gets an unconventional but noteworthy part.
As Diva navigates the newness of her school and meeting other kids in her own way, she is overwhelmed by new feelings she'd love to define, including how to be herself, in the face of a mother (and brother) who are kind but just don't understand her low-key approach.
Books are wonderful vehicles for connecting young readers with characters who are like them. As such, many introverts will appreciate Diva's predicaments, including being true to herself and her own social needs and appeasing her mother and her brother who think that the bigger the party the better and being funny and loud and sociable is the only way to be. Fortunately, Alison Hughes who has handled many tough issues like anxiety, serious illness and abandonment in her picture books (e.g., The Cold Little Voice, 2019), middle grade novels (e.g., Kasey & Ivy, 2018) and young adult books (e.g., Hit the Ground Running, 2017) tells Diva's story as an exemplar for finding your own voice without shouting over others, thereby accepting others' differences as valid, just distinct. She also learns how to handle a bully, finally, and recognize a friend when presented with one or two.
I hope that young people like Diva who don't insist on being in the limelight always and who are able to spend energy on introspection rather than just on sociability will see themselves in Over the Top, especially if it helps them accept themselves as they are. Diva has got a pretty good handle on that herself and her dictionary of complicated and yet familiar feelings was undoubtedly valuable to that end. Over the Top will leave young introverts with the sigh of relief that they can be their understated selves and occasionally endure an over-the-top anything, perhaps even to their own benefit.
