Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Review: Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt

5 Stars

When I first saw this book, I immediately thought it looked like a "boy book" and was not overly interested in it.  While perusing another book blog, I noticed a review that mentioned she had initially thought that as well, so I checked out what she had to say.  Here's the synopsis from goodreads:

According to her guidance counselor, fifteen-year-old Payton Gritas needs a focus object-an item to concentrate her emotions on. It's supposed to be something inanimate, but Payton decides to use the thing she stares at during class: Sean Griswold's head. They've been linked since third grade (Griswold-Gritas-it's an alphabetical order thing), but she's never really known him.
The focus object is intended to help Payton deal with her father's newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis. And it's working. With the help of her boy-crazy best friend Jac, Payton starts stalking-er, focusing on-Sean Griswold . . . all of him! He's cute, he shares her Seinfeld obsession (nobody else gets it!) and he may have a secret or two of his own.
In this sweet story of first love, Lindsey Leavitt seamlessly balances heartfelt family moments, spot-on sarcastic humor, and a budding young romance.

After reading that I decided to give it a shot.  I'm SO glad I did because it was fantastic!  It was fun, clean, with a little romance thrown in, but Payton had to work through her own personal struggles too.  Despite being a sucker for happy endings, I was thrilled to find that the ending was happy, but also completely realistic.  This was a wonderful book about first loves, growing up, and figuring yourself out.  I loved it. 

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I love Sean Griswold's Head! Like you said, it's got that great happy ending, and yet it's realistic and doesn't feel forced. :-)