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JUST LIZZIE by Karen Wilfrid

JUST LIZZIE

by Karen Wilfrid

Pub Date: Nov. 14th, 2023
ISBN: 9780063290297
Publisher: Clarion/HarperCollins

What does it mean if you’re an eighth grade girl who doesn’t “like” boys—or anyone, for that matter?

Lizzie’s tough year starts with a move following a neighbor’s frightening harassment of her mother and her beloved brother’s departure for college. Also, her best friend, Sarah Nan, is obsessed with boys and crushes, and Lizzie just doesn’t get it. How do you start “liking” someone like that? What does “liking” even mean? Is some part of her missing? Learning about asexual reproduction in science class opens up a new world for Lizzie. But why can everyone accept her taking self-defense classes to manage her fear following their neighbor’s actions but not her revealing she’s asexual? Not even her mother or her favorite teacher validates her. How can Lizzie simultaneously cope with anxiety over the harassment, others’ aphobia, and her own fears that asexuality will mean always being alone? Lizzie’s feelings, struggles, and fears, arising from the author’s own experiences (which she describes in her author’s note), will ring true to many readers on the aromantic and asexual spectrums. Also poignant is Lizzie’s lingering fear of men as she wonders why victims, not perpetrators, must move. Hope comes from her successfully navigating friendships and family relationships, taking a deep dive into research, and finding true mentors in unexpected places. Main characters are cued white. Some secondary characters are cued lesbian or gender nonconforming.

A welcome addition to the growing number of novels exploring and embracing asexuality.

(resources) (Fiction. 10-13)