Review by Booklist Review
This opens with a clever hook that will keep readers turning pages until the very end. One of four lifelong friends budding journalist Jordon, earnest CJ, artist and adoptee Ava, and sexuality-questioning Martha is waiting to be sworn in as president of the U.S. Her married last name is that of a high-school boy they all liked. So when the bulk of the story flashes back to their senior year, the question of just who married him and ascended to the country's highest office permeates their other trials and tribulations, of which there are many everything from fears about a romance with a boy in a wheelchair to saving a park from demolition to finding a birth mother, and for all the girls, hopes and fears about college plans. The dialogue is snappy and the plotting is sharp, but initially the girls aren't differentiated well. Though they are of different races, this seems like an afterthought. Fortunately, the girls' personalities come into sharper focus as the book continues. A curve-ball twist adds to the considerable fun.--Ilene Cooper Copyright 2020 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this clever mystery with romantic elements, television writer Watson keeps readers guessing as she traces the angst-filled senior year of four best friends, one of whom is destined to become president of the United States. In Cleveland, Ava Morgan, CJ Jacobson, Jordan Schafer, and Martha Custis have been a "loyal and inseparable foursome" since they met in the park before kindergarten's start. When that park is scheduled for demolition, waylaying a senior tradition, saving the park becomes their common concern. Individual worries also plague the young women: Latinx Ava is afraid to tell her lawyer mother about her hopes for art school; white CJ's average SAT scores might curtail her dream of attending Stanford; and Martha, a questioning white lesbian named for ancestor Martha Washington, may be stuck attending Cleveland State unless she can drum up the funds for MIT. Meanwhile, biracial (half-black, half-white) school newspaper editor Jordan, more focused on the present than the future, hides a relationship with an older man. Featuring an ethnically and socioeconomically varied cast, Watson's well-plotted debut delicately balances humor and weighty intersectional issues. Fast-paced action and sharp-witted dialogue prove to be a winning combination, drawing out suspense all the way to the presidential reveal. Ages 12--up. Agent: Kate Schafer Testerman, kt literary. (Mar.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 7 Up--This story opens with a mysterious woman about to be inaugurated U.S. president. Listeners are given only her married last name. Then we jump back in time, to the senior year of high school for four girls. One of these girls will be the future president, but it is left to the listener to guess throughout the story which one it will be, until the reveal in the last chapter. Best friends since kindergarten, the girls are distinctly different, with each having her own special talent (artist, journalist, volunteer extraordinaire, scientifically brilliant) as well as baggage to overcome. Christie Moreau narrates engagingly with a youthful voice. Chapters are done from multiple third-person viewpoints, without much voice differentiation among characters. High school life is realistically portrayed with its ever-changing dynamics of relationships, stress about the future, and feelings of social inadequacy. Moreau's range handles the lively dialogue and fast pacing as well as capably reflecting the wonder of first love, along with the angst and nostalgia of senior year. VERDICT Give this to fans of touching coming-of-age stories who like a drop of mystery added. --Julie Paladino, formerly with East Chapel Hill H.S., NC
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
The future is female: Her name is President Diffenderfer.Best friends since kindergarten, Ava, CJ, Jordan, and Martha tackle their senior year with great aplomb in Watson's debut. When their senior rite of passage, carving one's name into the jungle gym at a local park, is threatened by a city council that wants to demolish the park, the girls rally to save the place where they became friends. This is far from their only problem: Though each is talented, they struggle this year with emotional, academic, social, and financial issues. Latinx artist Ava, who lives with depression, desires to find her birth mother and attend art school against her mother's wishes; white cross-country athlete CJ, who is self-conscious about her body, can't crack the SATs, so she strengthens her college application by volunteering with disabled children; biracial (black/white) student journalist Jordan lies about her age to interview a handsome councilman's aide, and a mutual crush develops; STEM-focused white lesbian Martha, named for her ancestor Martha Washington, worries that her family can't afford MIT. Over the course of the year, the friends weather obstacles and realize the power of their friendship. Their relationship prepares one of the girls to become president of the United States, and the twist ending will come as a surprise. The characters are superbly drawn; portrayed as whole people, the various elements of their identities are not the entirety of who they are.Inspiring and heartwarming. (Fiction. 12-16) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
