A Week of Mondays

May 16, 2016
Brody (the Unremembered trilogy) brings fresh twists to a familiar Groundhog Day–esque premise. Monday, September 26, is not a good day for high school junior Ellie Sparks. She gets drenched on the way to school, flubs a campaign speech to become class v-p, and bombs her softball tryout. All of this pales in comparison to getting dumped by her boyfriend, Tristan, after a fight. Desperate to win him back, Ellie makes a frantic wish: “Please just let me do it over.” And when she wakes up the next morning, it’s Monday all over again. After the second Monday turns out as badly as the first, Ellie gets five more chances to make things right. Watching Ellie relive her horrible day is something like peeling an onion. Each Monday, a piece of her people-pleaser facade melts away, revealing more of her real self—the self only her best friend Owen appreciates and, it turns out, loves. Adeptly balancing comedy and heartbreak, Brody’s fantastical romance raises thoughtful questions about true love and the power to change one’s destiny. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management.

May 15, 2016
With school pictures, a history pop quiz, a speech in front of the student body, and varsity softball tryouts, Ellie, a junior, finds herself repeating the same maddening day until she gets it right.Not an original premise, Brody's theme is that one must not only learn how to be true to oneself, but figure out who are the people who truly matter and demonstrate affection. Parents, younger sister Hadley, and, most of all, best friend forever Owen have taken a back seat to the relationship with rock-star wannabe Tristan. Though the story follows the well-known romantic formula of good looks vs. forever friend, there is still plenty of entertainment along the way. Ellie is smart enough in the end to know some dreams belong to others and which dreams of her own she can abandon in order to move beyond the hitch in her universe. An oddly antique playlist of '60s music serves as both background and chapter headings. No readers at all familiar with the plot device will be surprised as to the steps required to succeed and the ultimate outcome. Nonetheless, there are still some tender moments in this world of white, middle-class concerns, fittingly accompanied with only a hint of anything hotter than a kiss.Solidly nonsmutty fare for readers who want to imagine they can get it right too. (Romance. 12-16)

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June 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-In the course of one Monday, Ellie Sparks gets a ticket for running a red light, fails a history quiz, gives a train wreck of a speech in front of the entire school, bombs softball tryouts, and, to top it all off, is dumped by her sexy rock star boyfriend. Just when Ellie thinks that things can't get much worse, she wakes up the next morning and quickly realizes that she is living the worst Monday of her life all over again. After the initial shock, the teen decides that if she is given this second chance to make things right, she has to do her very best to keep her boyfriend from dumping her again. Little does she know that there doesn't seem to be a way to make the cycle stop. Ellie will try everything in her power to make sure everything is set right in her life, even if it means reevaluating what right really is. This work touches upon something that many teenagers (and adults) have always wondered: How would things change if I could do it all over again? While this story is relatively predictable, it makes up for that by being compulsively readable and enjoyable. Ellie is an easily relatable narrator for whom readers will keep rooting. VERDICT A teenage spin on Groundhog Day that is sure to please those looking for a light and entertaining read.-Annalise Ammer, Henrietta Public Library, NY

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2017
After sixteen-year-old Ellison suffers a comically unfortunate Monday, she's granted a chance to do it over again. And again. She's convinced that preventing her musician boyfriend from breaking it off will stop the cycle; she tweaks her choices and, ultimately, her persona to little avail. It's a familiar premise, but Ellie's strong, humorous voice lends considerable charm to this compulsively readable romantic comedy.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)