Hazel Hill Is Gonna Win This One
by Maggie Horne
Middle School     Clarion/HarperCollins    240 pp.         g
10/22     978-0-358-66470-3     $16.99

Twelve-year-old loner (and snarky, self-aware narrator) Hazel is accustomed to her role as casual confidante for classmate Tyler. But then popular Ella, Hazel’s speech competition rival and Tyler’s ex-girlfriend, tells Tyler falsely that she has a crush on Hazel to deflect his attention. Unlike Ella and unbeknownst to her, Hazel is gay, and the resulting mix-up when the supposed crush gets back to Hazel, though awkward and not without conflict, leads eventually to Ella and another friend welcoming Hazel into their group. It also leads to revelations involving Ella and other girls that make it clear why someone might want Tyler to leave her alone; i.e., his abusive social media comments, unwelcome physical contact. The novel is honest about sexual harassment and, as the girls try to counteract it, about victim-blaming—though, without giving too much away, the ending is a heartening one. Tyler’s offenses stay within a realm likely comprehensible to most middle schoolers, and that’s part of the book’s point: harassment at any level should be taken seriously.

From the November/December 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.