Not if You Break up with Me First by G.F. Miller
First thoughts, this is a funny book. I was a little worried it was going to be a super sappy book, but it’s got a lot of laughs. The awkwardness in this book sort of works.
Eve and Andrew are starting 8th grade, and things just seem different. They have been friends forever, just friends. But this year is different. Instead of talking about comics, kids are talking about their crushes. Everyone is pairing up to go to the dance instead of just going as one big group of friends. Before Eve can think too hard, her friends convince her to ask Andrew to the dance before someone else does. Andrew is her’s! Well, her best friend, right? The other issue is that Eve’s parents are always fighting, but once she tells them that she asked Andrew to the dance, they seem to get along a lot better. So, she is playing along with all of this dating stuff to make her parents happy, but she never told Andrew this, so he is just sitting there all confused as to what is going on between them.
Neither of them knows what is going on at this point, and neither now wants to talk about it. It’s like the movie “How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days.” They don’t want to date each other, they don’t want to mess up their friendship, so neither one of them will be the first to talk. So now it’s like the movie How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days. They know so much about each other that they understand what annoys each other. Maybe one of them can make the other one break up first! Oh My Goodness! I work in a middle school, and reading this book reminds me of all the times kids are in the library chatting with each other. I hear the craziest ideas from some of these kids! This book is just like that. I wanted to go up to Eve and/or Andrew and just say, “No, don’t do that.”
I like that the chapters jump from Eve’s to Andrew’s point of view. You really get into their heads and know what they are feeling. Which makes every prank they pull on each other even worse because you know how much each one hates what they are doing.
Reading this one right after Curlfriends, I noticed some similarities in awkwardness that are a little annoying. Eve asks Andrew to the dance, but they don’t really talk about it. Are they going as friends? Are they dating? Do they like each other, in the sense of genuinely liking each other? They put in so much effort to avoid just talking to each other. It’s one of those “Just talk to each other! But again, they are in middle school, so they are still figuring things out.
Five Out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
Literary Coffee 