It All Begins with Jelly Beans
-
- $7.99
-
- $7.99
Publisher Description
Two girls form an unlikely friendship during their shared time in the school nurse’s office in this heartfelt middle grade novel for fans of Save Me a Seat and Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus.
Meg spends her days hoping no one thinks too hard about why she wears the same t-shirt and slippers to school every day. Luckily, the nurse’s office provides a welcome escape from classmates who don’t understand…and snacks when food runs out at home.
Riley knows fitting in at her new school would be a lot easier if her friends were more understanding of her type 1 diabetes. So she keeps her testing under wraps…and an emergency bag of jelly beans on hand.
When Meg and Riley end up together in the nurse’s office one day, both girls think they’ve worked each other out, but what if they’ve got it all wrong? On the brink of moving on to junior high, Riley and Meg must find the courage to discover who they really want to be. And maybe a bag of shared jelly beans will provide all the help they need.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in Australia, this dual-voiced narrative follows two implied-white 12-year-old girls. Idiosyncratic Meg Kieran, friendless and anxious, spends time each day in the nurse's office of Bayview East Elementary School, reading Anne of Green Gables and avoiding mean girls. Since her father's sudden death, her mother's depression and subsequent disability leave mean that Meg must fend for herself; she wears slippers to school and is frequently hungry, though the school nurse and her aunt ensure that she doesn't starve. When classmate Riley Jackson, a friend of Meg's main antagonist, has a type 1 diabetic episode, the girls share jelly beans in the nurse's office and embark on a cautious friendship. Riley, who uses an insulin pump, chafes under the aggressively watchful eye of her psychologist mother and longs for the freedom she believes Meg relishes, while Meg yearns for a parent to look after her. While the lack of adult response to Meg's obvious distress may feel jarring, her voice is spiky and appealing; Riley's chapters, peppered with information about diabetic routine, provide drama around boys and friendship in this inconsistent but endearing novel. Ages 8–12.
