UP SO FLOATING

In Hourihan’s debut middle-grade novel, a girl and her friends attempt to win their Catholic school’s talent show.

Massachusetts, 1964: Things have been rough for Monty Moriarty ever since her mom died. The 11-year-old (whose real name is Montura) is in constant trouble with the nuns at All Saints School for her irreverence, her grades are floundering, and her father only pays attention to her when school calls about her behavior. In two weeks, All Saints will be hosting its annual mandatory talent show, in which students perform in teams of four. This year, the show comes with an added bit of incentive for Monty: “May an Abundance of Grace Befall the Winners,” reads the school flyer. Grace is precisely what Monty needs. “A person filled with grace—like Hail Mary full of grace—would find joy. For the longest time, Monty had thought she might never be happy again. Not unless Mom came back somehow.” Monty doesn’t have many talents beyond her encyclopedic knowledge of patron saints, but she has memorized a ton of poetry, and she decides to recite a poem for the show. The only problem is that she will need to assemble a team and teach them poems as well. She snatches up her reluctant best friend Danny; her leather-jacket-wearing, Elvis-haired crush Leon; and Danny’s cute but sickly crush Sandra. As tempers collide and Sandra’s condition worsens, a winning performance—and a chance at grace—may be floating out of Monty’s grasp. Hourihan brings the novel’s world to life through Monty’s playful—and incisive—point of view, as when she appraises Sandra: “Tiny Sandra. Blue eyes. Rhinestone glasses. With those auburn pigtails, she resembled Monty’s old Raggedy Ann Doll more than a sixth grader.” Not every detail rings exactly true; Monty’s Irish father speaks like a character on one of her grandmother’s Danny Thomas TV shows, dropping both a “faith and begorrah” and a “malarky” in his first scene. Generally, though, Hourihan evokes the time and place—and particularly the angst of childhood—with elegance and wit.

A charming, big-hearted novel about friendship, grief, and poetry.