Noah Frye Gets Crushed
by Maggie Horne
Middle School    Harper/HarperCollins    272 pp.
5/24    9780063285194    $18.99
e-book ed.  9780063285217    $8.99

When Noah returns from summer camp to learn that her two best friends have each had their first kiss with a boy, she worries about being left behind in this new phase of development. Luckily, Jessa, her best friend from camp and a recent transplant to her town, fits right in with Noah’s tight-knit friend trio, but even Jessa doesn’t seem as lost as Noah when the conversation fixes on endless boy analysis. Noah develops a scientific plan to step up her boy game: choosing a target, telling her friends, spending time with said boy, flirting, “group hangs,” and finally kissing. The selection of the target isn’t difficult: Archie volunteers with Noah at the animal shelter; his family adopted her favorite pit bull rescue; and he seems nice, although nothing special. But is Jessa onto Noah’s scheming? And is she…hurt by it? This enjoyable first-love tale features a charming small Canadian town under assault from a tasteless designer, the star of reality TV’s Rural Refresh (who turns out to be Jessa’s mom). Noah’s big sister, Brighton, whose model relationship with her boyfriend shows Noah what a real partnership should feel like, offers her discretion “if there was ever anything you wanted to tell me.” Readers, too, will be more clued in than the protagonist, who figures out her feelings for Jessa later than just about everyone else, but the ending is extra sweet for all that, allowing middle schoolers gay, straight, and questioning to enjoy this age-appropriate story without any of the heavy baggage that coming-out narratives can sometimes entail.

From the July/August 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.