Ollie In Between

Gr 6 Up–Growing up is hard, but it’s even harder for someone who doesn’t want to bloom. Twelve-year-old Ollie, who is Persian and white, has a health class assignment: write an essay on what becoming a woman means. But Ollie isn’t even sure they want to be a woman, let alone write an essay dissecting their journey towards it. On top of that, all of their friends seem to be growing up without them, and they can’t seem to make enough lists to follow to try and blend in. As Ollie navigates this middle school turbulence, they realize they don’t have to blossom into womanhood; they can just be Ollie, even if that Ollie defies the status quo. Callans’s novel tackles the hard-hitting topics of neurodiversity, gender identity, and the powers of peer pressure. As Ollie constantly grapples with the expectations placed upon them, they have to shed old friends to make space for ones that see them and accept their authentic self. The simple but brilliant way that Ollie internally discusses these topics makes this read accessible to younger readers beginning to question their identities, and it also grips older readers as they reflect on their own definitions of what it means to grow up.