Out of Place

April 1, 2019

Gr 3-6-Shy and quirky Cove has never left the island of Martha's Vineyard. She longs for discovery, and is heartbroken to learn her best friend Nina will be moving away to New York City to live a life of adventure without her. To make things worse, she is bullied at school by a group of mean-spirited girls. Cove finds respite in a local thrift store and befriends Jonah, a college student who avidly watches the fashion competition television show Create You. Soon after, she meets retired seamstress Anna and a quiet boy at school named Jack. Her three new friends inspire her to try her chance at competing on Create You, and Cove soon finds that her island contains more excitement than she ever imagined. Blecher's debut is a sensitive and compassionate tribute to every child who has ever felt like a misfit. Supported by clear and precise prose, the narrative progresses at a good pace, making it a strong choice for a classroom read-aloud or a bedtime story. The characters are vibrant and memorable; Cove is an emotionally intelligent heroine who successfully names and processes her feelings. VERDICT A beautiful story about learning to speak up and taking risks. Recommended for collections where books by Erin Entrada Kelly and Lauren Wolk are popular.-Katherine Hickey, Metropolitan Library System, Oklahoma City

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2019
Missing her best friend, Nina, who's moved to New York, Cove, 12, faces the mean-girl bullies of her Martha's Vineyard middle school alone. Nina's dads invite them to visit, but Cove's mom insists they'll never leave the island. Focused on her own spiritual path and with a new boyfriend in tow, she gives Cove's daily struggles little attention. Tormented by girls who bark when they see her, Cove misses Nina most at school. With bullying out of control, the school assigns community service to instill compassion in students and improve the school's image. Jonah at the used-clothing store introduces Cove to a TV reality show on which would-be fashion designers ages 12 through 17 design and sew in competition. Smitten (home's TV-free), Cove, a talented artist, fantasizes about competing on the show in New York and seeing Nina. A nursing-home resident who once sewed for Coco Chanel agrees to teach Cove, but progress is frustratingly slow. Hanging with Jonah and dumpster-diving with new student Jack make life bearable, but only just, so Cove hatches a desperate plan. Slow to take shape, the plot's end-loaded. While readers have to work for it, this thought-provoking tale of childhood isolation and powerlessness experienced in a socially networked world rewards the effort. Cove and her mom present white; race is not noted in the text, leaving the illustrations (not seen) to fill in those blanks. Raising more questions than it answers, this recommended read should spark lively discussion; a good bet for an intergenerational book club. (Fiction. 8-12)

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May 6, 2019
Cove Bernstein, 12, lives on Martha’s Vineyard with her overprotective mother. Bullied at school for dressing differently, Cove finds solace in her friendship with Nina and Nina’s nurturing and artistic dads. When Nina moves to New York City, though, Cove feels increasingly desperate and lonely despite a tentative friendship with a new boy at school. While visiting a local secondhand store, Cove discovers a show about a kids’ fashion design competition in New York. Frustrated with her mom’s unwillingness to let her leave the island, tired of being the butt of jokes at school, and determined to see Nina again, Cove vows to become a contestant on the show even if it means she has to break some rules to do it. In Cove, Blecher has created a sweet and realistically vulnerable character who longs to feel validated and respected. The taunts of the mean girls are devastatingly true to life, the story’s leisurely pace doesn’t lag, and the ending is hopeful without feeling cliché. All in all, this is a tender, uncomplicated coming-of-age story that illustrates how hard it can be to fit in at any age. Ages 8–12. Agent: Alexander Slater, Trident Media Group.

July 1, 2019
Twelve-year-old Cove, lonesome after best friend Nina moves from Martha's Vineyard to NYC with her dads, makes three new friends. One, an elder-home resident, teaches Cove to sew. In hopes of visiting Nina, Cove determines to win a spot on a �cf2]Project Runway�cf1]-like show. Blecher's characters are well rounded, and her sense of place--including the vacation destination's socioeconomic disparities--effectively conveyed. Occasional sketches (ostensibly by Nina) are interspersed.

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2019
Twelve-year-old Martha's Vineyard resident Cove has never left the island because of her single mother's distrust of the outside world. Cove doesn't mind?until her best friend Nina moves away with her dads to NYC. Cove and Nina exchange snail-mail letters (Mom's not fond of computers), but whereas the friends had presented a united front against the island's mean-girl contingent, now Cove must face it alone. Cove, isolated and lonesome, makes three new friends: a boy her age who doesn't care what people think; a thrift-store employee who introduces her to the TV show Create You (like Project Runway: Junior); and an elder-home resident who teaches Cove how to sew. Cove thinks her best chance of visiting Nina is to win a spot on Create You, and she goes to great (and unfortunate) lengths to do so. Blecher's characters, from Cove and her friends to her yoga-instructor mother and Mom's new surfer-dude boyfriend to the year-round island residents, are well rounded, and her sense of place?including the socioeconomic disparities of this famously wealthy vacation destination?is effectively conveyed. Occasional sketches (ostensibly by Nina) are interspersed. elissa gershowitz

(Copyright 2019 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)