A funny and heartfelt LGBTQIA+ middle grade novel set against the backdrop of family drama and a library funding campaign in a small town.
Alex Eager lives in Faillin, OR with her grandmother, a retired librarian. Life should be great for Alex, since she finally worked up the courage to ask her best friend PJ if they could be more than friends and she said yes. But their new relationship will have to be long distance, because PJ is moving. On top of that, Alex is worried that something is wrong with her increasingly forgetful grandmother. And to make matters worse, Faillin is holding a referendum on library funding, and things aren’t looking good. Will anything good for Alex ever last?
Mountain Upside Down is a beautifully crafted story of a thirteen-year-old girl finding her place in her family and her community. It’s a queer-positive story that doesn’t center coming out. It’s a story of a library’s role in a community that doesn’t feature book banning. And it’s a story of long-held family secrets and resentment that focuses not on final resolution but learning how to communicate again.
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Excerpt:
PROLOGUE: LAST THURSDAY
If you think about it a certain way, it should be easy to tell the person who’s been your best friend since third grade that you like her.
Because you already know she likes you enough to be your best friend, right?
And you already talk about everything.
Well, almost everything.
We were in her yard, sitting on opposite ends of the widest, lowest-hanging branch of the dead-yet-sturdy barkless tree we always climb. I was leaning against the trunk with my knees pulled into my chest. PJ was farther out, straddling the branch with her legs dangling.
“So, um, I was wondering,” I said, my face catching fire, “I mean I was wanting, I mean I am wanting, I mean I want—argh!”
“Wait, don’t finish!” PJ said.
I smashed my head into my knees and turned into wood and petrified.
Because I was still hiding my head, I felt, rather than saw, that PJ was scooting closer to me on the branch. “No no no, it’s nothing bad! I just—I wanted to be the one to ask you! I had it all planned out!”
I unpetrified and managed to look at her. Not directly at her, but sort of at the general area of the branch where she was sitting, and then at a particular knot in the wood, which kind of looked like an eye, so it was like I was making eye contact? She kept talking: “But I think this is actually better, because I was pretty sure, but not exactly, like, two hundred percent sure?”
Then PJ got even closer, perching inches away from me. “Please,” she said, “go on.” She goofily drew out the last two words in a weird voice, and that made me laugh, which made me braver, so I said, “Okay, so I was going to ask if you wanted to, um, date? I mean, um, date me, specifically?”
“Yes!” PJ said. “That’s almost how I was going to ask you, but I was going to say girlfriend! Do you want to be girlfriends? In a gay way?”
And then I was laughing again and PJ scooted even closer, and despite the whole sitting-in-a-tree,-K-I-S-S-I-N-G thing, which makes you think that actually might be where you’re supposed to be while you kiss? It is in reality extremely awkward to have your first kiss with your girlfriend while sitting in a tree.
But I would still recommend it.
Reviews:
“Genuine and grounded; full of warmth and pragmatic realism despite difficult and uncertain circumstances.”
—Kirkus
“[An] endearingly thoughtful middle grade debut….a tidy and satisfying tale.”
—Publishers Weekly
Read Sara’s Work
Sara is interested in how we come to understand who we are, how we find community, and how our environments shape us. They like writing about friendship, love, secrets, and families, both biological and chosen.
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