ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
OLDER FICTION
Florence, Melanie

Lo Simpson Starts a Revolution

216 pp. | Orca | April, 2024 | Paper ISBN 9781459838505 $14.95 | Ebook ISBN 9781459838529 $11.99
(2) YA Lo Simpson, twelve, is no Margaret Simon: she'd just as soon never get her period, and to her a bra is just "a medieval torture device." But her best friend, Jazz, suddenly wants to go bra shopping and sneers at Lo's Doctor Who cosplay. In fairly short order, Jazz is sitting at the "It Girls' table," leaving Lo bereft, pouring out her sadness and confusion in letters to the Doctor that she never sends. As sensitively as Florence depicts the dissolution of Lo and Jazz's friendship, this is more than a middle-school friend-breakup story. Lo quickly (some would say conveniently) discovers a table of fellow nerds who get her Doctor Who references and give her a new community and new confidence. When, after an excruciating sex-ed session capped by a mass condom handout, some boys target the It Girls with condom-balloons, innuendo, and bra-snapping, Lo draws on lessons about consent from her lawyer mother and fights back -- just the first skirmish in her "revolution." The many references to Doctor Who risk confounding readers unfamiliar with the BBC classic, but Lo comes across as a genuine fan, and the Doctor is an important factor in her growth. Lo's metamorphosis from "friendless loser" to a "new, badass version of herself" is swift but rewarding; readers get enough of Lo's interiority to believe her journey. Breezy and bracing.
Reviewer: Vicky Smith | Horn Book Magazine Issue: July, 2024

RELATED 

OLDER FICTION

What Beauty There Is
by Anderson, Cory
OLDER FICTION

Between Perfect and Real
by Stoeve, Ray
OLDER FICTION

Zoe Rosenthal Is Not Lawful Good
by Werlin, Nancy
OLDER FICTION

Home Is Not a Country
by Elhillo, Safia
OLDER FICTION

All Our Hidden Gifts
by O'Donoghue, Caroline
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?