Unstuck

Lyla is a writer. She’s always known that. She has a whole fantasy novel in her head, one with witches and magical beings, in a strange world with a dangerous quagmire and a one-toed beast, so when her seventh-grade ELA teacher announces they will be working on creative writing, Lyla is thrilled. Now she will finally get her novel on paper. Maybe it will even be a series!

But writing is different from imagining, and Lyla is stuck. She tries lots of things her teacher suggests to get unstuck, but to no avail. And she finds she is trying to impress certain people rather than just writing. And there is the pressure of a contest coming up as well as family drama and friend drama. It’s a lot.

Barbara Dee has written a compelling story many middle graders will relate to, especially those with older, successful siblings or those going through friend problems. The situations are quite realistic and the dialogue and characters are all believable. But it is hard to keep rooting for a main character in a rather long book who is often not very likable, and Lyla is that. Still, many readers will like this one.