Littman, Sarah Darer. In Case You Missed It.

Littman, Sarah Darer.   In Case You Missed It.  Scholastic Press  2016  305p  $17.99  ISBN 978-0-545-90437-7      Hardback      hs  Realistic fiction  VG    

Sammy is the perfect daughter to two overachieving parents who expect the same from Sammy and her brother. She takes four AP courses, is ready to take her driver’s license test, and is figuring out the mathematical probability of her crush taking her to the junior prom.  Then her father’s company gets hacked. His business and personal emails become public, as well as all the family photos and, worst of all, Sammy’s diary, which is backed up to the cloud on the family network. To Sammy, the public humiliation for her father pales in comparison to her humiliation at school when all her innermost thoughts and rants go viral. Sammy loses friends and unexpectedly makes new friends, and she and these new friends form their own faux prom. Many of Sammy’s thoughts are endlessly repeated, and her best friend, who is Hispanic, talks in italics when a Spanish word is used. The same thing is done regarding Sammy’s Jewish grandmother, whose Yiddish phrases appear in italics, which is annoying. If that’s the way they talk, there is no need for italics. With too many topics — racism, sexism, Sammy’s mother’s cancer, her father’s legal trouble, friendship issues, school pressure issues — this novel tries to cover too much ground and resolve it all neatly in 305 pages. It would have been better to have tackled a couple of issues and written a sequel dealing with the other issues. Still, it is a breezy read about school pressure and family problems that will appeal to many readers, especially middle-school readers who haven’t had to deal with these problems.   

Summary: Sammy is an AP high-school student, ready to take a driver’s license test and figure out the likelihood of her crush asking her to the prom. Then her father’s company gets hacked and his business and all family computer information is made public, including her diary. Gr 7-11

Computer hacking-Fiction, Friendship-Fiction                      —Lois McNicol