I SPEAK BOY

The course of true love never did run smooth.

Seventh grader Emmy Woods is a lot of things. Consummate schemer. Aspiring app developer. Risk taker. And where her best friend, Harper, is concerned, she’s “Emerie Woods: Love Coordinator.” But a matchmaking attempt goes horribly wrong, and Emmy knows exactly who to blame: boys, “humanity’s greatest unsolved mystery.” When she wakes up one morning with a new app on her phone that translates the hitherto-hidden thoughts of boys, she thinks she’s hit the jackpot and starts making matches left and right. But when the secret of the app falls into the wrong hands, Emmy must face the consequences of meddling in others’ love lives. Emmy is a lively, engaging narrator, and even the most minor characters are richly imbued with distinctive quirks, desires, and traumas. Brody expertly teases romances, fractured friendships, and plot twists, keeping readers guessing at every turn. Echoes of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which the language arts class is reading, provide added spice. Emmy is White, and there is some diversity in the supporting cast. In a jarring note seemingly equating Whiteness with being American, the book states that Harper’s black hair is from her Korean-born father, but she got “her hazel eyes and fair complexion from her mom, who was born right here in Highbury.”

A hilarious, heartwarming middle school drama.