Book Review: Those Kids from Fawn Creek

Original review written 9/12/23

Title: Those Kids from Fawn Creek

Author: Erin Entrada Kelly

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What's it about?

Fawn Creek, or Yawn Creek as some call it, is a small southern town where everyone knows everyone, partially because they were all born and raised there. The 7th grade is no different. They've known each other since pre-school!

But then, without any warning, a new girl shows up. Orchid Mason is well traveled and a ray of sunshine happy to befriend Greyson and Dorothy, two best friends who don't seem to fit in anywhere else. Greyson doesn't fit the traditional male profile and Dorothy is shy. Nothing like Janie and her cousins who's families own some of the biggest businesses in town, obviously making them the most popular 7th graders in their school.

Even small schools have cliques.

But lonce Orchid is in the picture, the lines start to blur. Orchid looks deeper then just the exterior and has a way of bringing people together. But she has her own secrets, secrets that could change the way the kids of Fawn Creek see her and think of her.

Will she be able to keep her secret? If anyone finds out, will it undo all the positive she's done?

Favorites:

Favorite Character: Orchid. Ok, so she's not perfect but I love how she comes in, this ray of sunshine, and gives everyone a chance. She doesn't judge or take things for granted. She sees the people for who they are. She brings attention to subjects that shouldn't be ignored while being totally respectful and considerate to the people involved.

Least Favorite Character: Greyson's parents. Sure, I'm not a big fan of Renni, either, but she's a kid. She needs to learn better and put that energy into responding to the world in a more appropriate way but I wanted to smack Greyson's parents. There were so blinded by gender norms that they couldn't see how they were hurting their son; how miserable he was and how muted he lived just to please the and avoid judgement from his family.

Favorite Part: When Orchid meets Lehigh. I love how she advocates for him and makes it clear that the actions of others isn't okay, even if everyone thinks it's normal but she does it in this settle way. There was just something so sweet and so strong about it, I couldn't help but fall in love with her.

Least Favorite Part: When Renni's last scene. She's such a bully! It was heart wrenching.

Favorite Quote: ""It's a beautiful day,""Orchid said. "When you get a beautiful day, you have to catch it. Like a firefly."" (pg. 38)

Other Thoughts:

This was an odd one for me because it almost felt like nothing happened but a lot happened. There was something about this book that pulled me in and got me invested in these group of kids. I wanted to scream when Greyson's parents put gender norms before him and I wanted to shake Dorothy's parents until they really saw their daughter. I wanted to strangle Janie's mother for putting so much pressure on Janie to be above everyone else, like she had to be perfect. But it was like magic, I can't explain why I felt so strongly about it.

My first instinct was to speak out against Greyson's parents for being so closed minded, but then I realized that...that's not entirely fair. I don't, at all, agree with their view points or actions when it comes to Greyson and how "manly" he is, but then I realized something. His parents, blind as they are, love Greyson, they just don't understand him. They are stuck with the ideas they were taught and, as it seems, there's not a lot of representation of anything else in their town. That's real. There are so many kids out there with parents just like that and they deserve to have representation, too, even if I don't like those parents.

I wish I could say something very profound about this book or something I got from it but I can't. All I can say is I was more then content to read it and, while I don't plan to read it again, I've very glad that I read it to begin with.

Ratings:

I give this book a

5

out of

10 of Greyson's mom's pillows

But that's just what I think. What did you think? Did you hate Greyson's parents? Love them? Did you hate the name Didi? Did Orchid annoy you? Let us know in the comments.