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Summary
Summary
When twelve-year-old Cove Bernstein becomes the target of a school-wide bullying campaign, she sets out to find a way to leave her home on Martha's Vineyard for New York City, where her best friend lives. But Cove discovers that friends can appear in the unlikeliest places, and maybe home isn't the worst place to be after all.
Jennifer Blecher's debut novel is a voice-driven story about bullying, friendship, and self-reliance that hits the sweet spot for fans of Ali Benjamin's The Thing About Jellyfish and Erin Entrada Kelly's You Go First.
Twelve-year-old Cove Bernstein's year has gone from bad to worse. First, her best friend, Nina, moved from Martha's Vineyard to New York City. Then, without Nina around, Cove became the target of a bullying campaign at school. Escape seems impossible.
But opportunities can appear when you least expect them. Cove's visit to a secondhand clothing store leads her to a surprising chance to visit Nina, but only if she can win a coveted place in a kids-only design competition. Cove doesn't know how to sew, but her friend at the retirement home, Anna, has promised to teach her. And things start really looking up when a new kid at school, Jack, begins appearing everywhere Cove goes.
Then Cove makes a big mistake. One that could ruin every good thing that has happened to her this year. One that she doesn't know how to undo.
Jennifer Blecher's accessible and beautifully written debut novel explores actions and consequences, loneliness, bullying, and finding your voice. This voice-driven friendship story is for fans of Rebecca Stead's Goodbye Stranger and Jodi Kendall's The Unlikely Story of a Pig in the City.
Includes black-and-white spot art throughout.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 3-6-Shy and quirky Cove has never left the island of Martha's Vineyard. She longs for discovery, and is heartbroken to learn her best friend Nina will be moving away to New York City to live a life of adventure without her. To make things worse, she is bullied at school by a group of mean-spirited girls. Cove finds respite in a local thrift store and befriends Jonah, a college student who avidly watches the fashion competition television show Create You. Soon after, she meets retired seamstress Anna and a quiet boy at school named Jack. Her three new friends inspire her to try her chance at competing on Create You, and Cove soon finds that her island contains more excitement than she ever imagined. Blecher's debut is a sensitive and compassionate tribute to every child who has ever felt like a misfit. Supported by clear and precise prose, the narrative progresses at a good pace, making it a strong choice for a classroom read-aloud or a bedtime story. The characters are vibrant and memorable; Cove is an emotionally intelligent heroine who successfully names and processes her feelings. VERDICT A beautiful story about learning to speak up and taking risks. Recommended for collections where books by Erin Entrada Kelly and Lauren Wolk are popular.-Katherine Hickey, Metropolitan Library System, Oklahoma City © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Cove Bernstein, 12, lives on Martha's Vineyard with her overprotective mother. Bullied at school for dressing differently, Cove finds solace in her friendship with Nina and Nina's nurturing and artistic dads. When Nina moves to New York City, though, Cove feels increasingly desperate and lonely despite a tentative friendship with a new boy at school. While visiting a local secondhand store, Cove discovers a show about a kids' fashion design competition in New York. Frustrated with her mom's unwillingness to let her leave the island, tired of being the butt of jokes at school, and determined to see Nina again, Cove vows to become a contestant on the show even if it means she has to break some rules to do it. In Cove, Blecher has created a sweet and realistically vulnerable character who longs to feel validated and respected. The taunts of the mean girls are devastatingly true to life, the story's leisurely pace doesn't lag, and the ending is hopeful without feeling cliché. All in all, this is a tender, uncomplicated coming-of-age story that illustrates how hard it can be to fit in at any age. Ages 8-12. Agent: Alexander Slater, Trident Media Group. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Twelve-year-old Marthas Vineyard resident Cove has never left the island because of her single mothers distrust of the outside world. Cove doesnt minduntil her best friend Nina moves away with her dads to NYC. Cove and Nina exchange snail-mail letters (Moms not fond of computers), but whereas the friends had presented a united front against the islands mean-girl contingent, now Cove must face it alone. Cove, isolated and lonesome, makes three new friends: a boy her age who doesnt care what people think; a thrift-store employee who introduces her to the TV show Create You (like Project Runway: Junior); and an elder-home resident who teaches Cove how to sew. Cove thinks her best chance of visiting Nina is to win a spot on Create You, and she goes to great (and unfortunate) lengths to do so. Blechers characters, from Cove and her friends to her yoga-instructor mother and Moms new surfer-dude boyfriend to the year-round island residents, are well rounded, and her sense of placeincluding the socioeconomic disparities of this famously wealthy vacation destinationis effectively conveyed. Occasional sketches (ostensibly by Nina) are interspersed. elissa gershowitz July/Aug p.123(c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Missing her best friend, Nina, who's moved to New York, Cove, 12, faces the mean-girl bullies of her Martha's Vineyard middle school alone.Nina's dads invite them to visit, but Cove's mom insists they'll never leave the island. Focused on her own spiritual path and with a new boyfriend in tow, she gives Cove's daily struggles little attention. Tormented by girls who bark when they see her, Cove misses Nina most at school. With bullying out of control, the school assigns community service to instill compassion in students and improve the school's image. Jonah at the used-clothing store introduces Cove to a TV reality show on which would-be fashion designers ages 12 through 17 design and sew in competition. Smitten (home's TV-free), Cove, a talented artist, fantasizes about competing on the show in New York and seeing Nina. A nursing-home resident who once sewed for Coco Chanel agrees to teach Cove, but progress is frustratingly slow. Hanging with Jonah and dumpster-diving with new student Jack make life bearable, but only just, so Cove hatches a desperate plan. Slow to take shape, the plot's end-loaded. While readers have to work for it, this thought-provoking tale of childhood isolation and powerlessness experienced in a socially networked world rewards the effort. Cove and her mom present white; race is not noted in the text, leaving the illustrations (not seen) to fill in those blanks.Raising more questions than it answers, this recommended read should spark lively discussion; a good bet for an intergenerational book club. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Life on Martha's Vineyard is rough for Cove after her best friend, Nina, moves away to New York City. Things go from bad to worse when the mean girls who bully Cove start wearing shirts that say, stay away from us, which makes middle school feel even more isolating. Luckily, Cove discovers a kids' fashion-design show, filmed in New York, that could be her chance to visit Nina. While pursuing her plan, Cove gets to know new people, including the dumpster-diving Jack and the elderly Anna, a skilled seamstress who teaches her how to sew. But progress is slow, and Cove's only hope of getting on the show is by lying. Blecher's debut is effortlessly readable, with a heroine whose gentle but determined nature makes her easy to root for. While the conflict stemming from Cove's lie is quickly dispatched, her creative stand against bullying has a subtle buildup and a rewarding conclusion. A sweet, satisfying story about finding your place.--Mariko Turk Copyright 2019 Booklist