Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten (review) Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten (review) Kate Quealy-Gainer Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Volume 69, Number 1, September 2015, p. 64 (Review) Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: For additional information about this article [ Access provided at 6 Apr 2021 03:24 GMT from Carnegie Mellon University ] https://doi.org/10.1353/bcc.2015.0692 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/589557 https://doi.org/10.1353/bcc.2015.0692 https://muse.jhu.edu/article/589557 64 • the bulletin easy to see why Tretch might be attracted to him. However, the plotting falls short of coherent. Random incidents follow one another, punctuated by stilted dialogue and choppy scenes that neither flow into one another nor connect thematically. For instance, after thinking about his great-uncle, a Vietnam vet who took his own life, Tretch goes out to stargaze on a frozen lake in the middle of the night and falls in, only to be rescued by his father, who happened to follow him. Later, the boys are called on to help Tretch’s squeamish farmer grandfather deliver a breech calf in the middle of the night, Tretch makes up with a homophobic bully by yelling at him for smoking, and he then cuts a fine rug at a New Year’s Eve dance after coming out to his date. It’s hard to tell whether the bumpy dialogue is because the characters are not realistic or because they are too realistic for art, but ultimately this requires readers with a high tolerance for literary and character awkwardness. KC weinGArten, lynn Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls. Simon Pulse, 2015 325p Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-1853-9 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-4814-1859-1 $10.99 R* Gr. 9-12 Despite not having talked to Delia in over a year, June is devastated when she hears that her former best friend has committed suicide. She’s also suspicious, though: there’s no way that Delia set herself aflame in her stepfather’s shed, since fire was the one thing that scared the normally fearless and fierce Delia. She joins Delia’s most recent boyfriend, Jeremiah, in a search for clues to what they believe is Delia’s murder. Their investigation uncovers some of Delia’s seedier activities over the last year, but ultimately, June’s hunt for answers points toward the one person she thought she could trust the most. The book earns its dramatic title, both in the plot’s hairpin twists and the portrait of an intimately toxic relationship between two desperate girls, illuminated through flashbacks that add dimension to both characters. Delia seems at first to be a typical manic pixie dream girl, but she is far more clever and manipulative than June gives her credit for. June’s also oblivious to her own malleability when it comes to Delia—she is comfortably ensconced in Delia’s shadow when they are friends; unmoored but relieved in their separation; and guiltily determined in the aftermath of Delia’s death, but never once does she realize that Delia is always the motivation behind her behavior. Weingarten is acutely aware of pacing—each plot turn is followed by a reprieve that allows readers to settle into a new theory about Delia’s fate only to have their assumptions upended once again. A taut, sophisticated thriller, this will find an audience with teens who appreciate labyrinthine plots and ambiguous endings. KQG willems, mo I Will Take a Nap!; written and illus. by Mo Willems. Hyperion/ Disney, 2015 57p (Elephant & Piggie Books) ISBN 978-1-4847-1630-4 $9.99 R Gr. K-1 Tired, cranky Gerald wisely recognizes that a nap is just what he needs to feel good again, and he quickly settles into sleep with his blankie and Knuffle Bunny (from Knuffle Bunny, BCCB 10/04). In his subsequent dream, Piggie disturbs his nap, and Gerald’s grouchy response to her interruption makes her so cranky that she, too, wants to take a restorative rest. Her “special buddy” for napping is a stuffed elephant (which Gerald finds endearing), and soon both pals are off to dreamland—until Piggie’s snores keep Gerald from sleeping. When Gerald throws a fit about not being able to sleep and declares, “I am NOT enjoying my nap, Piggie! I am NOT