Review by Booklist Review
Sixth grade has been confusing. Vanessa's best friend, Bailey, has grown distant, and when Vanessa learns that she wasn't invited to Bailey's birthday party, it seems their relationship is officially over. Thankfully, Vanessa makes a happier discovery, too: an abandoned museum at a nearby park, complete with a mysteriously abandoned painting. She puts together an exhibit about her floundering friendship, hoping to decipher why it ended, and soon other kids including her older brother and an unusual boy from her Hebrew school, join her in creating their own displays. News of the imminent building demolition sets Vanessa in a race against time to try to save the museum--and possibly her friendship with Bailey--in the process. It's an intriguing premise, and the tone is delightfully conversational, even when tackling topics of shifting friendships, body-focused repetitive behavior, and having an active-duty parent overseas. Discussions of relationships are nuanced and thoughtful, and the book ends on a realistic but hopeful note. A creative and compassionate examination of friendship in all forms.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sixth grader Vanessa Lepp is hurt and bewildered about being inexplicably abandoned by best friend Bailey Dominguez. When Vanessa discovers a boarded-up museum near her small-town Ohio home, she's fascinated by its empty frames and pedestals, and begins creating an exhibit about Bailey, hoping to understand what went wrong and to win her friend back. Others, including Vanessa's 14-year-old brother Sterling, happen upon the museum and begin building their own personal exhibits, forming a secret community that helps Vanessa expand her focus to other friends--and to the mysterious creator of a remarkable painting that she regards in the museum. Sales (Once Was a Time) persuasively portrays Vanessa's frustration around others' expectations, her lack of control over her life, and her anxiety, whose presentation involves compulsive skin-picking. Rendering the intensity of middle school dynamics in serviceable prose, this multifaceted art mystery with a focus on interpersonal bonds tackles an array of themes--anxiety, friendship's natural fluctuations, and learning to let go of the past--while offering opportunity for reflection. Occasional b&w illustrations from Li portray objects from Vanessa's exhibit. Vanessa cues as white and Jewish; Bailey is Mexican American. Ages 8--12. (May)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 3--7--Vanessa is an 11-year-old Jewish middle grade student from Ohio with an absent military father and a mother who works all the time. She and Bailey are best friends but are beginning to drift apart. As Vanessa is out exploring one day, she stumbles upon an abandoned museum and decides to make an exhibit showcasing her friendship with Bailey. Slowly Vanessa starts to see that friendship in a new light. This book is geared towards middle grades but has wide appeal for its relatable themes. Readers will witness Vanessa deal with her dwindling friendship as she changes each exhibit, a creative way to express how relationships are affected as friends grow and change. Many readers will see themselves in Vanessa as she matures and deals with life issues; the process of watching her make new friends is heartwarming and relatable for anyone in middle school. Readers will learn to value memories of the past, but also to look forward to what is to come. VERDICT This is an outstanding book for its unique and wonderful approach to relatable themes surrounding the notion of coming of age.--Maeve Dodds
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Review by Horn Book Review
Sixth grader Vanessa is mystified and saddened by the apparent end of her friendship with longtime BFF Bailey -- so much so that when she comes across a dilapidated building, once a museum, in her small Ohio town, she decides to make it into her own museum: the museum of Bailey. "Maybe by telling the story of Bailey -- by laying it all out clearly behind glass -- she would at last be able to understand where it went wrong." When others discover Vanessa's project -- Eli from Hebrew school; her older brother, Sterling; and twin classmates Rosalie and Honore -- they add their own exhibits. As Vanessa gains more insight into her and Bailey's friendship, "the story of Bailey" changes, with the labels on the items in the Bailey Wing amended to reflect Vanessa's evolving understanding. Meanwhile, the mysterious provenance of a large painting left behind in the museum adds Mixed-Up Files resonance. Other elements woven into the plot include Vanessa's compulsive skin-picking (identified late in the book as excoriation disorder) and worry over the safety of her active-service father. Sales (If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say, rev. 5/18) manages to combine all of this into a nuanced look at friendship, family, self-knowledge, coming of age, and community, with Vanessa a strong-minded and sometimes unlikable but always sympathetic protagonist. (c) Copyright 2023. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
For Vanessa, the loneliness of an ended friendship becomes creative inspiration in an abandoned museum. Vanessa Lepp doesn't understand why Bailey Dominguez doesn't want to be best friends anymore. They are both still sixth graders at Edgewood Falls Middle School, and they are still in the same homeroom. But Bailey, who is Mexican American, is not in Vanessa's life anymore. When Vanessa, who is Jewish, finds an old, mostly boarded up museum, she creates an exhibit of meaningful items connected to Bailey, hoping to win back her friend. The space becomes a place to put her pain. Eventually, others bring their stories of sadness and of hope to this secret space, including Sterling, her older brother, and Eli, the class clown from Hebrew school. A mysterious painting has also been left in the museum, raising questions about things we leave behind and how people change as they grow. What will happen to all of these treasures when the building gets torn down? There are many complex themes in this story: the loss of friendship, a military dad stationed in Germany, and Vanessa's anxiety that manifests as body-focused repetitive behaviors. Sales gently uses the museum's exhibits to explore self-awareness, help her characters process past behaviors, and reveal consequences that are not initially understood. The inner thoughtfulness is balanced with an action-packed ending that satisfies. Creatively explores the complexity of middle school friendships. (Fiction. 8-12) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
