LitBit Speaks

We are seventeen and shattered and still dancing. We have messy, throbbing hearts, and we are stronger than anyone could ever know… Jonah never thought a girl like Vivi would come along. Vivi didn’t know Jonah would light up her world. Neither of them expected a summer like this…a summer that would rewrite their futures. In an unflinching story about new love, old wounds, and forces beyond our control, two teens find that when you collide with the right person at just the right time, it will change you forever. I must admit that I received this book a long time ago and only just got to it, and now that I've read it, I can't believe I didn't start it WAY sooner! Lord is an incredibly talented writer, building up a nuanced and complicated love story that also handles mental illness with great sensitivity. Though a number of novels so far this year (2016) seem to feature teens who have stopped taking anti-depressants or anti-psychotics, Vivi is a particularly well-constr...

Sometimes our hearts see things our eyes can’t. Lily Jo McGrother, born Timothy McGrother, is a girl. But being a girl is not so easy when you look like a boy. Especially when you’re in the eighth grade. Dunkin Dorfman, birth name Norbert Dorfman, is dealing with bipolar disorder and has just moved from the New Jersey town he’s called home for the past thirteen years. This would be hard enough, but the fact that he is also hiding from a painful secret makes it even worse. One summer morning, Lily Jo McGrother meets Dunkin Dorfman, and their lives forever change. I am in love with the fact that more and more representations of trans lives of younger people are being included in children's publishing. Though I continue to be glad that such characters are becoming more plentiful in middle grade fiction, I must make a note that I think there needs to be more representation of racially diverse trans characters and trans characters with disabilities, etc. That being said, Lily and ...