A short history of the girl next door

Matt and Tabby have been neighbors and best friends since they were babies. Now they are freshmen in high school, and Matt has fallen in love with Tabby. To his dismay, handsome, highly likeable senior, Branson, is falling for Tabby as well. It's exquisitely painful for Matt to witness Tabby's delight, but he tries to ignore his feelings and channels his frustrations into basketball. Then Matt loses Tabby forever. In this debut novel, Reck creates a realistic and moving portrait of a 14-year-old guy clobbered by a grief he cannot express. Matt is a funny, good-natured teen until the tragedy, and in the days and weeks that follow, he copes by maintaining surface-level denial while a roiling mass of anger builds within. Sympathetic adults intervene to help get Matt on track without providing pat solutions, much like the adult characters in Chris Crutcher novels. Pair this with other novels that explore loss from a male perspective, such as Jeff Zetner's Goodbye Days (2017) or Adam Silvera's History is All You Left Me (2017).--Colson, Diane Copyright 2017 Booklist

Reck debuts with a moving story about a sensitive and talented basketball player. High school freshman Matt Wainwright has been in love with his neighbor and longtime friend Tabby for years, but he can't work up the guts to tell her, especially now that she has caught the eye of the most popular senior on his basketball team. Through Matt's funny and reflective narration, the story builds to become a powerful novel about first love, the intimacy of childhood friendships, and moving forward from loss, after unexpected tragedy strikes. In the same way that Matt tamps down his feelings for Tabby, Reck writes subtly about Matt's surging emotions, keeping them just below the surface but strongly felt (during a car ride together, "We don't talk. A few times I see her typing in her phone, and I wonder how she can share two different experiences at the same time with such ease"). Reck's novel is sure to provoke reflection about finding meaning amid life's unforeseeable tragedies. Ages 12-up. Agent: Laura Crocket, Triada U.S. Literary. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Gr 9 Up-Matt and Tabby grew up more like siblings than across-the-street neighbors: comfortable friends who shared Halloween candy and looked out for each other. Now, entering high school, Matt sees Tabby through wistful, "potential girlfriend" eyes. Too bad Tabby is smitten with Liam Branson, a senior who is not only a sports star at school but, even Matt has to admit, a downright decent guy. Descriptions of layups, pump fakes, and practice games alternate with Matt's mortification when Tabby sees his sexist "Do List" and the lonely bus ride now that Tabby rides to school in Liam's car. An accident cuts short Matt's adolescent dream of "happily ever after," and he learns no one has a lock on missing someone. Debut author Reck satisfyingly fleshes out Liam, as well as several of Matt's teammates and family, for a rich story. Narrator Mike Chamberlain captures the teenage tones of bravado, anger, and "What the heck just happened?" VERDICT The mature emotional heart of this book is wrapped in significant descriptions of basketball games and the (relatively) friendly competition when sports bros hang out. Suggest to sporty Sarah Dessen fans and high school readers who enjoyed Carl Deuker's Swagger and Gym Candy.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Fifteen-year-old basketball player Matt, sabotaged by self-conscious overanalyzing in his head, can't bear to tell his neighbor Tabby that his feelings for her have evolved into something more than friendship. Debut novelist Reck sets up what seems like a standard rom-com, but in a tragic twist readers won't see coming, the novel becomes far more elegiac and moving. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A young man loses the love of his life. Matt Wainwright has pined for his best friend, Tabby Laughlin, for years but has never struck up the nerve to tell her how he feels. Instead he seethes with jealousy when Tabby begins to date the big man on campus, Liam Branson. There's friction between the two best friends for a bit, but just when things are starting to look up, tragedy strikes. The novel is startlingly similar to John Green's Looking for Alaska, with lost loves, car crashes, and wise teachers. Even more startling is the novels' mirrored structures: both take place over a school year and end with an essay written by the young man for a class taught by an inspiring teacher. The cherry on top of this comparable sundae is the fact that both books feature paragraphs in which the protagonist contemplates how long an instant death feels. Reck's debut is competently written, but the ruminations don't run as deep as Green's. The tertiary characters don't sparkle, spouting serviceable but unremarkable dialogue, and there's little attempt to introduce diversity to the largely white cast. In the end, readers will have the feeling they've read this story before, and it was much better the first time around. (Fiction. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Matt and Tabby have been neighbors and best friends since they were babies. Now they are freshmen in high school, and Matt has fallen in love with Tabby. To his dismay, handsome, highly likeable senior, Branson, is falling for Tabby as well. It's exquisitely painful for Matt to witness Tabby's delight, but he tries to ignore his feelings and channels his frustrations into basketball. Then Matt loses Tabby forever. In this debut novel, Reck creates a realistic and moving portrait of a 14-year-old guy clobbered by a grief he cannot express. Matt is a funny, good-natured teen until the tragedy, and in the days and weeks that follow, he copes by maintaining surface-level denial while a roiling mass of anger builds within. Sympathetic adults intervene to help get Matt on track without providing pat solutions, much like the adult characters in Chris Crutcher novels. Pair this with other novels that explore loss from a male perspective, such as Jeff Zetner's Goodbye Days (2017) or Adam Silvera's History is All You Left Me (2017). Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.

Reck debuts with a moving story about a sensitive and talented basketball player. High school freshman Matt Wainwright has been in love with his neighbor and longtime friend Tabby for years, but he can't work up the guts to tell her, especially now that she has caught the eye of the most popular senior on his basketball team. Through Matt's funny and reflective narration, the story builds to become a powerful novel about first love, the intimacy of childhood friendships, and moving forward from loss, after unexpected tragedy strikes. In the same way that Matt tamps down his feelings for Tabby, Reck writes subtly about Matt's surging emotions, keeping them just below the surface but strongly felt (during a car ride together, "We don't talk. A few times I see her typing in her phone, and I wonder how she can share two different experiences at the same time with such ease"). Reck's novel is sure to provoke reflection about finding meaning amid life's unforeseeable tragedies. Ages 12–up. Agent: Laura Crocket, Triada U.S. Literary. (Sept.)

Gr 9 Up—Awkward high school freshman Matt Wainwright has two goals in life. He wants to join the varsity basketball team as a sophomore (he's already on JV) and get the girl: his longtime next-door neighbor and best friend Tabby. Unfortunately, Matt's life refuses to follow the script, with his inner monologue personified as an incompetent movie director who causes him to choke under pressure. This results in error after error during Matt's JV games and prevents him from telling Tabby how he really feels. It's not just here that his life-as-a-movie veers away from a picture-perfect script: a school tragedy leaves Matt reeling as he risks losing everything important to him. While this title doesn't pack the same emotional punch as a John Green novel, or contain Green's artistic turn of phrase, it is heartrending in its emotional authenticity, and its portrayal of loss and heartbreak in the second half is particularly poignant. In exploring Matt's grief-induced selfishness, self-pity, and occasional outright cruelty, Reck takes the story to sarcastic and bitingly dark places without plunging into the abyss. Matt's warm relationship with his grandfather and the surprisingly in-depth descriptions of basketball further enhance the book. Although the ending hits an anticlimactic note, it offers readers reason to believe that Matt will rebound. VERDICT The informal writing style, short chapters, and connections to basketball will help this tragi-romance find appeal with reluctant readers. A strong purchase for YA collections.—Alea Perez, Westmont Public Library, IL