CONFESSIONS FROM THE GROUP CHAT

It’s easy to be mean from behind a screen.

Middle school isn’t easy, but Virginia is doing great. She loves volunteering at her local public library. The “really cute” Grayson Jennings also frequents the space—although his social stock fell precipitously when he quit football. With besties Mary Heather, Kat, and Jess, she runs Four Takes on Downtown Deer Hill, a popular community review account on the Scrollr app. That is, until the friends have a major fight, and Virginia ends up ostracized. Even worse, the other girls publish Virginia’s unkind private group chat comments about classmates to Scrollr for the world to see, ensuring her social destruction. Desperate and alone, Virginia finds an anonymous friend in the form of a text-door neighbor (someone whose phone number is one digit away from her own), who helps her discover the person she wants to be. But no one ever said becoming a better person would be easy. Meadows makes room for honest exploration, inviting readers to witness self-discoveries (and better understand themselves), largely without moralizing. The book’s important messages about the power and pitfalls of social media are gentle but insistent, and the story includes relatable discourse around online bullying and harassment. The adult characters are supportive and savvy, and decisions—good and bad—are openly discussed. Accessible and timely, this book will leave readers hanging on every page. Characters are largely cued white.

A sweetly gratifying story that doesn’t shy away from moral complexities.