Sean Griswold's Head
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
You can look at something every day and never really see it. Payton Gritas looks at the back of Sean Griswold's head in most of her classes and has for as long as she can remember. They've been linked since third grade (Griswold-Gritas; it's an alphabetical order thing), but aside form loaning Sean countless number-two pencils, she's never really noticed him.
Then Payton's guidance counselor tells her she needs a focus object--something to concentrate her emotions on while she deals with her dad's multiple scleorsis. The object is supposed to be inanimate, but Payton chooses Sean Griswold's head. It's much cuter than the atom models or anything else she stares at! As Payton starts stalking--er, focusing on--Sean's big blond head, her research quickly grows into something a little less scientific and a lot more crush-like. And once she really gets inside his head, Payton also lets Sean into her guarded heart. But obsessing over Sean won't fix Payton's fear of her dad's illness. For that, she'll have to focus on herself.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A chronic worrier, high school freshman Payton Gritas has just had a massive wrench thrown into her hyperorganized life: for six months her family has kept her father's multiple sclerosis diagnosis a secret from her. The school guidance counselor asks Payton to keep a journal about a "Focus Object" of her choosing, and she picks Sean Griswold's head, since he has sat in front of her in class for years. The drama begins when her boy-crazy best friend, Jac, decides that they should research Sean and then starts playing matchmaker. Payton soon falls for sensitive Sean and begins to share his passion for cycling, but between her father's illness, her declining grades, and her faltering friendship with Jac, she isn't sure that she can let someone new into her life. Leavitt (the Princess for Hire series) delicately handles topics of illness, evolving relationships, and what it means to grow up. Payton's alternately sarcastic, snappy, and reflective narration ("The truth, I know, is that it's not my dad I'm really mad at. I'm mad at his disease") carries this insightful story. Ages 12 up.
