Getting Over Garrett Delaney by Abby McDonald - ADVISABLE

McDonald, Abby  Getting Over Garrett Delaney, 319 pgs.  Candlewick Press, 2012.  $16.99.  Language: PG-13 (25 swears; 9 Gods); Mature Content: PG; Violence: G.  

Sadie has been best friends with Garrett Delaney for the past two years.  He has become her only friend and truth be told she wants more than anything for him to be more than her friend.  In her attempts to become his girlfriend she has relinquished any personal opinion she might have about music, movies, books and people.  When Garrett gets into a writing summer program and Sadie doesn’t she falls into a job at the local coffee shop to keep busy.  At the shop she meets new and exciting people and sees that life is full of possibilities outside the moody writing lifestyle that she has lived with Garrett.  As she learns more about who she is away from Garrett she learns to be happy on her own, but when he returns from his summer program will she be able to keep her resolve?  

I thought this book had great characters and it’s a coming of age novel.  I liked the way the author explored the concept of who we become through our relationships with others.  The book is formatted as a plan to get over Garrett with the steps spelled out at the beginning of the chapter.  This book had a good message about being yourself and not changing for a boy that is important for young girls to hear.  

MS, HS-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.