ARC recieved from NetGalley.

It Happened on Saturday tells the story of an 8th grade girl named Julia who lives in the Washington DC area with her parents and older sister named Danielle. Danielle gives Julia a a mini-makeover, including an outfit upgrade and holds a mini photo session for fun. Julia posts one of the pictures to one of her social media accounts where the photo is liked by lots of her friends and an older boy named Tyler. He begins reaching out the Julia via chat and a Julia begins responding to his messages and eventually agrees to a date at the mall to meet up. More text messages and a second date lead to a frightening situation when Julia finds herself locked in a hotel room with a man she has never met.

What I absolutely love about this book is that includes the events leading up to that Saturday including the challenges of friendships and getting older, feeling like a third wheel, secrets between sisters and disagreements with parents. More importantly, the author includes the after effects of a traumatic event, the pain of holding in that trauma and how to recover.

Sydney Dunlap presents the topic of human trafficking beautifully with just enough information to help tweens and teens can understand that unfortunately these things happen, but not so much that parents or educators would feel that the book itself would traumatize tweens and teens.

This book was very well written and extremely fast paced. I really enjoyed the fact that it talks about the subject of trafficking (a topic I rarely see covered in adult novels) and showed the lead up and the aftermath of what happens to Julia. The novel doesn’t get too graphic, but it does focus on topics like endangerment, anxiety, stress and moving forward after a traumatic event. Sydney Dunlap did a marvelous job with this book and I look forward to reading more of her novels in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital advanced copy. This book is about Julia, a middle schooler, who starts a relationship with a high school boy she met online. While I knew that something bad was going to happen, I didn't realize until I read it that this was about trafficking. I think this book did a wonderful job of handling sensitive topics like trauma, trafficking, social media, and counseling for tweens. I knew this was going to be a heart wrenching read, but it felt like a very authentic story on trafficking and the dangers of social media, and it had me really rooting for Julia and her healing. In such a short middle grade read, it really tackled a lot. This book is a must read for parents and families, and could spark great discussion.

I read this book because the author is in my 2023 middle-grade debut book. I love contemporary stories, and better yet if it is an issue book, as these are themes I like to explore myself.

Sydney Dunlap has taken an EXTREMELY difficult subject, child trafficking, and made it completely appropriate for her young audience with a talent that's astonishing for a debut author. Her real life experience working with affected communities shines through.

I found myself rooting for Julia and at the same time feeling growing dread for her safety, and even screaming at her "not to do it"! Even though the MC is in America, a country I've never been to, my protective instincts were on full alert; that's how relatable the characters and their circumstances were.

A MUST READ for every young boy and girl. It could actually save lives!

This book wasn't what I was expecting at all! I was very surprised by the subject at hand. I did learn quite a bit about this subject from the information
The author did very well with it.
Especially Julia. My heart pounded all the way through this story for her.
I did love the story being told from Julia's point of view.
This story will make you want to hold your breath to see what happens next!
However; about half way through the story will switch from past to present written in a genre that I don't care for. Diary form if you will.
Of course it does have my favorite animals in it! What's not to love about horses?!
Domino's tricks reminds me of a horse that I rode long ago. What an ornery horse!
But, he quickly became my favorite horse!
5 stars for a job well done! I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

In IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY, Sydney Dunlap offers a heart-wrenching story of human trafficking that manages to be both authentic and age-appropriate. IT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY is a wake-up call for parents, kids, and anyone working with young people. Dunlap authentically takes the reader through the loneliness and manipulation leading up to the trafficking scare, then gently guides us through the recovery, exploring changing friendship and family dynamics as well as fun horse-girl details. This one is not to be missed!

Thank you so much to Jolly Fish Press and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Julia is feeling lonely and left out after her best friend Nori comes back from summer camp. Nori has grown up, wearing make up and has a boyfriend. When Julia posts a photo of herself all made up and looking mature a boy comments and starts messaging her and they meet up, but she finds he isn’t all he said he was.

This book made me uncomfortable, I’m not going to lie at all it did, I was tense, I was uncomfortable and it was actually pretty hard for me to read. It was a very heavy topic and subject matter, the events that occurred within the story are dark and deep and terrifying. It’s hard for me to know what to say about this honestly, I’m not certain exactly what words to write.

Julia is already going through so much as she feels like Nori is pulling away from her and leaving her out, even though Nori was going through so much too and actually needed Julia by her side. The two get into such a miscommunication together. I was so sad for them drifting apart they seemed to have this amazing connection that was separating as everything they both were going though forced them further away. I was happy they eventually figured everything out together.

What happened to Julia was really scary and how easily she fell prey to it was extra scary. Just one simple message and she got hooked into a very dangerous web. This wasn’t an easy read, but I get how it is important, to show teens that it’s so easy to get swept into it and tricked. It was so vividly written though which I think makes it even harder to read, you are literally feeling like you are there with her. So scary.

I liked that Julia had her horses, such a great therapy animal and she needed them before she knew she needed them. I loved that she was making friends with new girls, it was sad it took her so long to fully trust and share with them though. I loved reading about the therapy sessions it was written in such a great way and had such delicate and soft, helpful advice that can be helpful for so many different issues.

This book is important, it’s heavy, it’s scary, it’s dark, it’s reality for so many in this world. It shows you the before, the during, the after and the healing. It shows you everything the good and the bad. It doesn’t tiptoe at all around the dark and scary stuff, but it also wasn’t easy to read due to all this. A very impactful and deep, very well written story.

I love this title as it shows how an ordinary day can turn into chaos with what seems like everyday decisions. Julia’s story is riveting, scary and genuine, all wrapped up in one. She experiences all the angst of an eighth grader. Insecurities, feeling left out, being afraid of the new. But these problems pale in comparison to what is lurking in the background. The jewel in this story is Julia, who made me want to cheer for her as she struggled to open up about her harrowing experience and as she sought to find a way to let the sunshine come through again. This is a great read for connecting to the middle school world, learning about a timely problem, and is an opener for dialogue. It will live with me for a long time. Thank you so much for the preview.

When the publisher emailed me to ask if I’d be an early reader for a young adult book about human trafficking, I wondered how such a topic would be handled by the author. It’s about an 8th grade girl named Julia. When her best friend gets a boyfriend, she feels a little left out. That all changes when she gets the online attention of a freshman named Tyler.
They agree to meet at a mall and things go terribly wrong. Julia’s voice could be that of a student, a niece, or my daughter, because as this book demonstrates, anyone could fall prey to the attention of an online predator. I hope this book serves as a warning to the reader about the dangers of social media and to others to do the right thing if something seems off.

Every middle aged person needs to read this. If you have a child, teach children, etc. READ THIS! This was so well written and teaches such an important lesson - be smart and protect yourself while not also fearing growing up in this scary world. I will never forget this book and will be buyimy a copy for my shelf.

Wow I was not expecting that from this story.
I was worried when Julia started seeing the guy she met on the Internet in secret, but didn't totally expect that outcome.
This is a book that opens your eyes as a parent to the dangers of the Internet. I will be putting this in my library and getting into teens & tweens hands all the time.
I did like how Julia uses the horses to help her heal after the event.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Julia feels forgotten and ignored when her family and friends become busy with other things. She goes against her better judgement and returns the attention of a handsome stranger. It turns out, things might not always be how they seem.

Sydney Dunlap has knocked it out of the park with It Happened on Saturday. Poignant and beautifully written, Dunlap’s book captures the fragile nature of adolescence and delicately depicts a trauma in a thoughtful and respectful way. This book is a must read for young audiences, because in addition to being a page turner, it introduces the topic of human trafficking in a real-life scenario which allows a sometimes abstract concept to be easily understood and learned from.