Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Okay, so this is more of a 3.75 star reading.
I really liked this book. We follow two characters who have their problems in life because even if you are in middle grade, you can have pretty serious problems (trust me, I know about that). And I liked how the author dealt with those problems. Whether it is parents neglecting their children for the golden child, or how hard it is to live with parents that just spend their time arguing.
Also, I related to Maggie, because girl, don't worry I get it, I have ADHD too, and my bag, my room.. Same, same.
Maybe some things could have been more developed, like the "romance" between the two characters, but it's still a quick, easy, and cute book.

The Problem with Gravity is a middle grade novel that follows Maggie and Tatum as they work on a project for a NASA competition. Tatum wants to use this project to make her parents proud and show them that she can be just as smart as her genius level teen brother….maybe then they will also consider coming to her baton twirling events. Maggie is obsessed with all things space, and if she and Tatum win this competition she would get to meet an astronaut! Trouble is, her parents fight all the time, her ADHD and autism sometimes interfere with the project, and, oh yeah, she’s had a huge crush on Tatum for ages!

Michelle Mohrweis did such a great job navigating the struggles of various family dynamics while also showing wonderful use of disability and LGBTQ+ representation in middle school. It all felt very natural and integrated into the story, and I am looking forward to reading more from them!

This book was so fun! Thank you to Netgalley and Peachtree for a digital copy of this book..

I was so excited to get access to an eArc via netgalley. This book was refreshing in a lot of ways. Lots of great representation: women/nb in STEM, queer, non-binary, and neurodivergent (autism and adhd). And while not mentioned, I definitely sensed an undiagnosed adult with adhd (which made all the sense in the world, but was not addressed, but left readers attuned to it to speculate).

AuDHD Seventh grade space fanatic Maggie has a crush on 8th grade popular baton twirler Tatum. What will happen when the two are paired up for a school project? Will they succeed?

Uuuugh I just wanted to give Tatum a hug so bad and tell her she’s doing great. I just so appreciated how in this world that Mohrweis created, that these kids are doing the best they can amongst imperfect parents and adults. Parents can suck and they can fail, and this book doesn’t idealize them in the way that kid novels can.

The book felt a bit long and there seemed to be a bit too much time talking about some of the events toward the end (could have used a bit of streamlining perhaps), but otherwise I truly loved this book. It doesn’t patronize and it really provide great representation to under represented groups. It made me smile.

I also wanted to appreciate how the author handled a sort of false choice that one of the MCs was given the way it was set up, there was only one logical choice to be made based on the info provided and I liked how the author mentioned that as well as the emotional weight of that choice.

All in all, I liked this book and would like more like it. More lgbtq rep and more casual STEM rep. As an adult, I appreciate that books like these are being made for kids,

One of the best middle school fiction books I’ve read (I say, as someone who absolutely loves the genre and reads books from it often), and one that incorporates diversity in a way that is truly meaningful and realistic while simultaneously making its characters more than their identities - making them fleshed-out characters with their own hopes and dreams, conflicts and lives. I wish I could’ve read this book in Middle School, but I am so glad that it will reach others like me.

The characters act like children! This seems obvious, but many, many YA/MG authors do not quite know how to portray young people in a way that is realistic. This book was lovely, and did not once make me feel like its characters were not the age they were, while still being a fun read that wasn’t only accessible to kids.

I loved that the characters’ differences were not the source of conflict in this story. Don’t get me wrong- I love stories in which the characters must learn to accept their queerness or neurodivergence and live in a world that is often not kind to them, but this story was not focused on that. The characters’ neurodivergence and queerness did play a big part, but both main characters had little to no internal conflict over their identities. Which made me so happy! They’re kids, it’s the fault of the world that so many kids who are different hate themselves for it. But these two kids escaped the harshest bits of the world in that regard, and that filled me with hope.

I also loved that their WAS conflict. Our two mains don’t get along all that well at first, and have to find out how to work together. They also both have a difficult relationship with their parents, and I think this was well-written, empathetic, and resonated with many of my own experiences. The parental stuff- I found some of it a bit too close to home and so felt a lot of emotions, so don’t pick this up if you’re looking for a completely lighthearted story. It is not heavy in the sense of parents who are extremely terrible people, but heavy in the sense that I think it will resonate with many people and you will feel so much for these characters that it will you emotional, too. Which is a wonderful thing! Just know that before you go in, so that you don’t expect just sunshine and rainbows (though, of course, there’s a lot of that too and it’s great!)

The plot did not drag at all! I love contemporaries, but sometimes, for me, they become a bit more boring than plot-heavy novels like high fantasy. But this book is paced so well and its characters’ voices so distinct that I literally could not put it down. I finished it in two sittings, and that’s only because I had to leave before I could devour it in one go.

Also… if you are queer, or neurodivergent, or different in any way that our society condemns, I especially implore you to pick up this book. Don’t let the age group deter you, it was a truly magical read for me. There is something that warmed my entire soul in this book - something about seeing queer kids talk about their crushes from the Dragon Prince, a neurodivergent kid who wears stim toys and happily uses them and is not shamed for doing so, a nonbinary kid who asks out a boy and holds hands with him, the list goes on. This book almost made cry. It is written- just, so so well. Think of the childhood you wished you could’ve had as a kid, the mundane experiences that came so easy to straight and neurotypical people but were denied to you, for various reasons. This book acknowledges that, and holds your hand, and asks: do you want to see kids like you having the childhood you never had, where they and those around them love their differences?

📖The problem with gravity

It’s about Maggie, who has the biggest crush on Tatum, a popular girl with really good grades.
Tatum is constantly trying to impress her parents, who are always praising her brother Evan who’s a genius ending up comparing both of them on multiple occasions making her feel bad about herself. Tatum plays the baton twirling it in the air and she’s really talented on it but even so her parents don’t give out a slight hint of interest. Tatum’s best friend is Jade non-binary and they both help each other like
Maggie is autistic and has ADHD, her parents have been arguing a lot and she wants to go back to how a year ago when they’re were all ok. And Maggie’s best friend is Shawn who’s autistic and helps her, that are also neighbours.
Maggie and Tatum start talking a little while after they get assigned a project together, Project Responsibility.

Well this was a lovely book, the pacing was a bit off at the beginning. But it got better along the way. I like how they show autism in a very clear that you can understand what is going on in one’s head. I felt sad every time Tatum felt like she wasn’t seen by her parents. Like my family is a little disputable in the way how we are said family. Overall the book was good so I’d say I recommend it if you wanna read more self discovery, autism and ADHD, and messy family relationships.

Themes:
Baton Twirling
NASA / Space
Sapphic
LGBTQ+ MC
Autistic / ADHD MC
School
Friendship

Middle school students Maggie and Tatum are partnered up for a school task - Project Responsibility! Maggie, a space-loving autistic seventh grader also definitely has a crush on Tatum the fun and gorgeous baton twirler. Together they work on their engineering project in hopes of getting a real-life astronaut to visit their school! The girls work together not just on their project but also in supporting each other through difficult aspects in their lives.

This was an incredible story. I loved learning about our main characters, their interests and their lives. The neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ rep was fantastic and it makes me happy that middle-grade-age students will be able to feel represented and excited by this upcoming novel. You can tell the author was super passionate about each subject included in this book and it flowed through the story well.

I’m excited to read more from this author and be able to recommend this book to friends.

I adored this book.

A skillfully created exploration of some of the negative elements of family dynamics as experienced through the two main characters - Maggie, an AuDHD girl whose parents can't seem to stop arguing and Tatum, who is drowning under constant comparison to her genius twin brother.

The surrounding cast of characters add a fantastic sense of richness to the world and the difficult topic of family breakdown is dealt with delicately and with real care. Maggie's best friend Shawn is also autistic but completely different from her which allows for a broader representation of what autism can look like. Tatum's best friend Jayden is non-binary and their parents have also separated.

It may be a little too neat that the two sets of best friends end up dating each other but I'll forgive it this minor quibble as the rest of the story is so layered and engaging. Also, bonus points for all the epic space and engineering references in it - not to mention the hitherto perhaps underrepresented sport of baton twirling!

A fantastic book to have in any classroom library at the senior end of primary school.

There's a lot of great rep on this book, both disabilities and queer, and it's so nice.

It's not a detriment to the book, but reading about Tatum and how she just wants her parents attention, to be enough for them, is so hard to read (and I'm saying this as an adult man) because damn, that's just so hard. I also feel very sorry for the brother.

There's sucky situations all around for our two girls, and it just hits a lot harder because they're so young.

The autism rep through Maggie and Shawn is absolutely bloody amazing, as it's being made very visible that while they both have autism, they're different. It really highlights that autism is a spectrum, and it's really nice being able to see that in the book, where there are more than one character with autism.

All in all, it's a fantastic book and I wouldn't hesitate to put this in my younger cousin's hands, so here's me hoping that some day it will be translated to other languages than English!

This was an excellent middle grade book with really great representation! I loved the main characters and the struggles they overcame. Definitely recommend!

I'm a huge sucker for multiple POV novels. The thing with middle grade readers is that sometimes the more perspectives, the heavier the cognitive load - the more likely students are to abandon the book. What I really appreciate about THE PROBLEM WITH GRAVITY is that Mohrweis makes the shifts seem natural and easy to follow. The plot flows well back and forth between the two main characters. Tatum the baton twirler has a solid friend group and does really well in school, but can never seem to measure up to her genius twin brother with her accomplishment-driven parents. Maggie the space geek is quieter, with a loyal best friend who gets her, since they both have autism (and Maggie has ADHD too). Maggie's had a crush on Tatum forever, so when they get paired up for a school project, she worries Tatum will be driven away by her forgetfulness, disorganisation, or chaotic household.

In general, I felt like Tatum's character took longer to become more nuanced, while Maggie felt more real from the start. My one critique is that it's hard to keep all of Tatum's friends straight (I just gave up), even though they each have a "thing" - one has cerebral palsy, one's nonbinary, etc etc. I think Mohrweis does a great job showing what autism looks and feels like for a tween, the angst of impending divorce/separation in a family, and how a first crush feels too (without being a coming out story - it was nice that there was no fear of stigma for expressing queer identities).

Great for fans of RICK, CLOSER TO NOWHERE, and INVISIBLE. Publishes Sep 26/23!
Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree for an advance digital copy of the book to read for an honest review!

🏳️‍🌈 Queer Book Review 🏳️‍🌈

The Problem With Gravity by. @michellemohrweis

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I don’t know what it is about middle grade books that make them so incredible, but if you ever need an example of it this is your book!

I was truly shocked by how much I loved this story! Not only did it cover some incredibly tough topics, but it had such lovable and relatable characters. This cast of characters is neurodiverse, queer, and diverse it just about every way imaginable without anything feeling token!

This book follows two girls, Maggie and Tatum as they form a friendship that quickly spouts into feelings while they work on an engineering project for NASA. The story also tackles dysfunctional families and the trauma they can cause, celebrates neurodiversity, showcases girls in STEM, and breaks down stereotypes of the public school experience!

I cannot recommend this book enough. I would have loved to read something like this when I was younger!

This book is everything you want in a book. It was a good mix of stem related fun which balanced out well with the harder scenes.

I really enjoyed it.

I loved everything about this book. Science, autistic representation, a middle-grades friendly sapphic love story, healthy friendships, and general fun. At first, I was worried that there were too many things trying to be handled in one book, but they weave together beautifully.

The two main characters who are telling the story from their perspectives back and forth are written clearly and are both strong, female protagonists. Maggie is autistic, loves all things space, and has a crush on Tatum. Tatum loves baton and is trying to wiggle her way out from under the shadow of her genius twin brother. When they are paired together for a school-wide project, Maggie sees a way to impress her crush and Tatum thinks it could be the perfect way to show her parents she's just as capable as her brother. Together, they find more than they bargained for in all the best ways.

This story is the perfect coming of age story for middle schoolers and upper elementary students. I loved how friendships are so incredibly healthy. They are all great examples of how to treat other people. Maggie and Tatum both have diverse friend groups with various needs, and they talk about and handle each other so gently. It was great to see and comforting to read. I already have plans to use this text for book clubs in my middle school and I can't wait to discuss these friendship dynamics. The romance between Maggie and Tatum is so sweet. I enjoyed how there was no discussion at all that being into each other would be anything other than accepted. Another safe space created in this book. This book is a warm, cozy hug.