Just Lizzie

Summary: WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THERE'S A QUESTION INSIDE YOU THAT FEELS SO BIG, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW TO PUT IT INTO WORDS? HOW DO YOU EVEN BEGIN TO ASK IT? Fourteen-year-old Lizzie knows what she's not. She's not at home in her new house on the other side of town, after an incident with a neighbor forced her family to move. She's not ready to say goodbye to the wild apple tree in her old backyard, or to her older brother, who just left home for his first semester of college. She's definitely not happy to be taking women's self-defense with her sworn-enemy PE teacher. And unlike her best friend - and seemingly everyone else around her - she's not interested in boys, girls, or the baffling behavior known as "flirting." Knowing what she's not is easy. It's much harder to figure out what she is. But just as Lizzie's world feels like it's closing in, a science lesson on asexual reproduction in plants captures her interest, leading her to search whether people can be asexual too - and suddenly, her world opens up. Lizzie finally finds an identity, a word that quiets all her messy, unnameable feelings and makes her feel seen. But she quickly realizes that a label isn't enough if no one believes it's real. Accessible, moving, and compassionate, Just Lizzie braids a nuanced individual journey of identity with the bittersweet angst of growing up, growing apart, and learning there are many ways to live and love. --