Oh my goodness, look at this cover! So many details covered in one image, including Barnaby's sweet face.

I really liked the premise of Same Page -- I had high hopes based on the book's description. There were lots of good things about the story: it was incredibly readable and a lot of the school and family scenes seemed realistic. (I especially liked the sibling relationships for both Bess and June!)

However, as an (adult) child of abuse, I really feel like the story line with June's mom was underdone (and too easily "solved" at the end). I had many run-ins with friends who didn't understand why my home life was different from theirs, why I wasn't allowed to do things, why I was so scared all the time... With Bess's mom being an actual *therapist*, I had hoped there would be more conversations about empathy and being a good friend, instead of blaming June for not being "brave" enough. Bess seems like a really self-involved person (which is probably developmentally-appropriate), and I felt like I had a lot more empathy for June than the author.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my e-ARC of Same Page!

• 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐒𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐆𝐄

1. If you have ever ran for school president and won, this book will resonate with you!
2. Have you ever faced book banning in school or otherwise? Read how Bess handles it in her hometown.
3. Riding horses is one of Bess’s favorite pastimes. Do you also love everything horses?
4. Has a friend ever betrayed you in a way you weren’t sure you could recover from before? Bess understands. Let’s see how she handles it!
5. Do you enjoy middle grade books with a fantastic message? This one is just right for you!

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

Bess Stein is more than ready to be 6th grade class president. She's got tons of ideas—including a book vending machine—and her new friend June is beside her as vice-president. Together, they're unstoppable.

But when the books the girls want included in the vending machine come under fire, Bess is stunned. How can one person believe they have the right to decide what other people can read? It turns out that June's mom is leading the fight, and now everything's a mess.

Bess misses June—but she wants to make sure kids who might like these books get the chance to read them, even if it means she and June can't be friends. With such different opinions, will they ever be on the same page?

Absolutely fantastic kids book. I could not put the book down once I began reading it. I cannot wait for it to be released. I will recommend it to everyone I know!

This is such an important topic in the current climate of book challenges and bans where representation is being silenced and diverse stories restricted in the name of "protecting" kids from hard topics. Bess Stein is a sixth grader fighting for those books to remain in circulation, even when it hurts her friendship with June after June's mom challenges the books.

While I love the topic, the writing was a bit disjointed. It reads easily enough for elementary school kids but a little too juvenile for middle school. I liked the growth that Bess had about understanding that her view isn't the only life experience that exists. While the Jewish representation provided valuable insight, I would have really liked some rep from BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ aside from a couple of mentions.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

ARC provided by NetGalley
Bess meets new 6th grader June during a camping trip meant to help students get to know each other. During the trip, June is bullied by two classmates. Later, as the newly elected 6th-grade president and vice president, Bess and June are thrilled when one of their campaign ideas—a book vending machine—comes to life. But their friendship faces a tough challenge when Bess learns that some books were removed from the vending machine because they might make people uncomfortable. Bess decides to stand up for the books, while June stays quiet, hoping to avoid conflict.

With relatable characters and themes like bullying, changing friendships, family struggles, and getting involved in school and community, this story will resonate with middle-grade readers. It’s a great addition to any upper elementary or middle-grade library.

Maybe as a media specialist I am too close to the subject matter of this book to give a truly unbiased opinion.
Swartz did a good job of handling the friendship aspects of this novel, and I think the middle school friendships will resonate with readers more than the book banning and social issues.

Same Page gives an interesting take on the book challenge debate that has been impacting school libraries across the country. Bess and June have become good friends over the summer and even run as student council president and VP together. They face tension in their friendship when June's strict mother begins to challenge many of the books in their library. Bess wants June to stand up to her mother but it's not that easy for her. I think the book would have been better if told from both perspectives and not just Bess's. As a Jewish American, Bess is most impacted by books about the Holocaust that have been challenged. I wish the author would have included other characters who represented other groups (BiPOC and LGBTQ) whose voices have been silenced due to book challenges.

This is THE book that all adults who think book banning is ok need to read RIGHT NOW! So many amazing quotes (and some I highlighted as responses if I ever get questioned on books in my own classroom) Bess is a heroine and I love her Book Warriors (do they have t-shirts? How can I join them?). I will be pre-ordering this book and not just having it on my shelves but I will be including it in one of the monthly raffles for my union as part of my equity team’s effort to get more diverse books into our schools. This one is a must have!

I received a free eARC of this book. Thank you for the opportunity to read it!

Bess and June bonded at summer camp due to mean girls and bullying, and won the president and VP of student council elections. Their first project? A book vending machine. But conflicts start developing when Bess, who is the great granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor, selects books that June’s mother, who believes that children shouldn’t have to read books that make them feel bad because things like racism and the holocaust are in the past. This leads to a lot of the books being pulled. As Bess gets involved with the Book Warriors that are fighting book bans, June’s mother is also rallying support. And June and Bess’s friendship, ans the student council, are both struggling, too.

This is a “ripped from the headlines” book that gives kids who are struggling with book bans some possibilities that they can do to advocate books in their community. And it also points out that kids are often caught in a hard place when their parents take stances that they don’t agree with, and struggle to find their voices.

This book deserves a place in classrooms, libraries and schools and will be finding a place in my Little Free Library.

I really enjoyed this book, which turned out to have many interesting layers!
The main one was, of course, was about book banning in a school library.The author did a great job of showing the obvious cons of banning, as well as stressing the importance of respecting other people’s opinions when making points.
Another subject was bullying, which in this book also manifested itself as anti-semitism. The main character, Bess, is Jewish, and proud of her heritage. She is understandably upset when a friend keeps silent while such remarks are made. This same child doesn’t stand up for herself, either, not to mean girls or her own overbearing mother, which Bess cannot understand.
This book should be in all classrooms. Book banning and censorship are very timely subjects, making novels such as this one all the more important.
*I received a digital copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are strictly my own.*

Just finished @ellyswartz upcoming #mglit book Same Page. Thank you @NetGalley for the eARC and thank you Elly for your powerful story that navigates the freedom to read, love, hate, kindness, and friendship. #bookwarrior

Newley elected Bess is excited to get her first sixth grade presidential campaign promise up and running, a book vending machine. Along with her new friend and Vice President, June, they begin listing books they'd like to see in the machine. The parent organization and librarian are quick to make her dream a reality. But quickly Bess is stunned when she finds that many of her books have been challenged and removed from the book vending machine.

I admired Bess's tenacity and the adults in her life who were advising her. She was able to learn a lot about things that you can and cannot control. I think the community around her was lovely.

Unfortunately, with a plethora of books on this topic floating around, this one fell a bit short for me. Mainly, that there was no justification for June's mom acting the way she was. She appeared as a nameless, faceless villain with no apparent reason for these actions. We are meant to feel sympathy for June because she loves her mother even though she "does bad things." At times, the mother is presented almost as an abuser. Was that intentional? I don't know. I just know that there are other books with this theme that have equally strong heroines who act bravely against more believable antagonists. I didn't hate it, but I won't be adding it to my shelves.

Bess met June at summer camp and is sure that their new friendship is off to a solid start. So much so that the girls run for class president and vice president once school gets started and win. Time to set the world on fire, the two of them! But right off the bat, the book vending machine that was part of their election platform stirs up controversy when a parent decides that some of the books in it are not appropriate for kids. What parent? June’s mom!

The stage is set for friendship drama, family disagreements, and learning to stand up for what you believe in a proactive, non-violent and effective way and, as with books like DEAR STUDENT, SMART COOKIE and HIDDEN TRUTHS, Elly Swartz does so in a way that rings true to the middle grade life seen in schools everywhere. Readers will connect with Bess as some of her best friends begin to find other interests and relationships change and certainly will understand her anxiety when her dog disappears. The book censorship issue is certainly in the news and regardless of whether students are seeing it play out on their campuses, SAME PAGE should get them thinking about the “what ifs” and help them form their own opinions about this important topic.

Text is free of profanity, violence (except that which is done to a stack of “controversial” books) and no sexual content. Representation: Both sides of the book banning subject with those supporting book removal being portrayed primarily with a somewhat irrational voice but also with a few townspeople who are friendly with Bess’ family and generally viewed as thoughtful. Bess’ friends/classmates include Black, Hispanic and other under-represented groups.

Full of heart and great characters, this one is sure to be a hit with our middle school readers. Bess is a wonderfully complicated character, which makes her completely believable! With the timely topic of book banning combined with middle school friendship drama, this authentic book will capture your heart.

I received a free eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is obviously extremely timely, and it was weirdly depressing to finish while I was on the desk on election night, obsessively refreshing the NY Times front page. It manages to walk the line between realism and optimism quite well.

Our protagonist is Bess Stein. She’s just been elected sixth grade class president, and her new friend June is vice president. One of Bess’s campaign promises was a book vending machine for the library - which is installed pretty much instantly because something something grant money sitting around. It’s a *little* contrived that they’re able to get everything set up so quickly - we have the exact same machine in our library and it took us MONTHS to get everything ready. But given that the machine is the catalyst for the problems here, I’m willing to look past the warp speed at which the thing is installed (it’s sort of irrelevant, but there’s also mention of Bess getting a panini press for the cafeteria, which I find mildly horrifying. Kids are just…grilling their own sandwiches? That thing would be broken in 5 minutes at most middle schools once some dingus decided to see what would happen if he put crayons in it).

Bess is super excited to work with her cool librarian to fill the machine with all kinds of awesome books. June is a little reticent, but Bess looks past it because they’re friends (and also no one is as unreasonably excited about it as Bess). But once the first kids start getting tokens and taking home books, the trouble begins. A few parents have issues with the kinds of books in the machine. It’s all presented in sort of vague terms - no one is very clear what, exactly, they have a problem with. And for her part, Bess is mostly focused on the Holocaust books, since her great grandmother was a survivor, so she has that personal connection. But, I mean, it’s not all that unlike the current book ban arguments uninformed people are making. “These books are bad!” What’s bad about them? “They’re just bad!” Repeat ad nauseum.

Bess wants to immediately start a book revolution, but there’s one snag - June’s mother is leading the banning charge, and June is afraid to stand up to her. This puts their new friendship to the test. Bess, like most middle schoolers, is pretty myopic when it comes to what she stands for. She knows book banning is wrong, and she can’t fathom why anyone wouldn’t stand up to their parents. But it’s more complicated than that for June. Speaking as someone who also has an extremely headstrong parent with whom I frequently disagree…it’s really hard! It’s easier as an adult, but it’s never easy to stand up to your parents’ beliefs, especially when you’re a kid. Bess’s parents are incredibly supportive, but even though June thinks their family is perfect, they’ve had their problems too (her parents briefly split up - this all went down before the story opens, but things are still pretty fragile).

Anyway, Bess joins a local group called The Book Warriors, made up of local librarians and educators. Their mission is to try to get the banned books into as many hands as possible, and while they have some success, they’re also met with quite a bit of pushback, even from people Bess thought would be supportive. There’s a lot of the “The world is scary enough, so I don’t want my kids to read stories that make them feel bad” argument being thrown around. (It’s still illogical, but at least slightly easier to digest than some jackass ranting about the word “woke”) Bess’s other friends, including June’s cute brother Knox, get involved, but June refuses, and even starts hanging out with a group of mean girls who started the year tormenting her.

Although I kind of wish we’d had Bess and June trading off narration duties, I did really enjoy this. There’s a sense of optimism to the Book Warriors’ mission, but they do meet realistic roadblocks, and deal with not unexpected consequences for their activism (sometimes speaking out means risking your job). There’s hope, but it’s not some magical world where hearts are opened and minds are changed. I get why we follow Bess, because we see her coming to terms with June’s perspective. But I wish we’d been able to see things through June’s eyes as well. What are things like when it’s just her and her mom? How does she feel about the way Bess starts treating her after she refuses to stand up for the books? She definitely doesn’t get a villain edit, and she’s still mostly three-dimensional, but it would have been nice to hear her perspective as well.

Now, more than ever, this kind of story is important to share with kids of all ages. This particular story, with sixth grader Bess navigating changing friendships, new friends, book bans, and differing opinions that can harm and hurt, will be good for younger middle-grade readers. I did find the writing style to be disjointed, with some details that seemed to be randomly included for flavor. The writing style makes the story seem like it's aimed for a late elementary-school audience, while the content is more focused on a younger middle-grade audience. A good book that would be great for young middle-grade readers and their adults to go through together.

I'm glad to see all of the books about book banning and censorship, especially for middle grade readers. It's such an important issue. The author did a good job of bringing the issue to the forefront of this book. The overall theme, speaking up for yourself and others, is also so important. Bess felt very strongly about book banning and actively spoke out against it. It's great that she spoke out against a wrong she saw in the world. However, sometimes I think Bess's approach, and the book itself, was a bit heavy-handed with the message. Bess didn't take the time to understand that June may have had a reason for not loudly speaking out against book banning. It may not have been safe for her, or there may have been other reasons. Bess automatically expected June to react in the same way as she did, and when June didn't have the same reaction, she got angry. There's a lot of nuance in these types of situations, and many intricacies to important issues. Likewise, Bess seemed to automatically default anyone that disagreed with her view into the "horrible person" category. While I understand there are some issues that may create irreconcilable differences of opinion, Bess's reaction seemed more instantaneous and without reflection (or any way for the reader to understand that this was an irreconcilable issue for Bess).
Additionally, I wish there was more of an exploration of preparing for a meeting/speech. In a debate class that I took years ago, I was told that I had to be prepared to argue for either side of an issue, despite my personal views. I think this is a good skill to have for more effective conversations around difficult topics. It doesn't mean that one must agree with the other side, but it helps to understand a bit better the arguments that the other side might make. People can be very passionate about their opinions, and that passion sometimes leads to a shouting match. It felt like the meeting in the book very quickly devolved into a shouting match. And sometimes even well researched meetings can end this way. I just wish the author had explored the preparation stage better, with the characters making clear arguments against banning and censorship, rather than just repeating that the books aren't scary and that kids feel they are ready for the topics within the books.
Again, I'm so glad that the author wrote this book that adds to the catalog of middle grade fiction that examines issues that impact kids today. I just wish this book had gone a little bit more in depth and explored the issue more.

Same Page is a great look at book banning and censorship for middle grade readers! I really enjoyed this one and thought it had some great dialogue about book banning that was handled well for a younger crowd. I loved that the main character talked about meditating and often stopped and said positive things about whoever she was arguing with. Sure, some of it was a little easy, but this is a middle grade book so that is completely understandable. Bonus points for a great sibling relationship and a fantastic dog!

Thanks to NetGalley, Random House Children's, and Elly Swartz for the chance to read and review. My opinions are my own.

This was a well written children’s fiction book, it had that element that I was looking for and enjoyed getting to know the characters in this universe. I enjoyed the way Elly Swartz wrote this and am excited for more, I enjoyed previous books written and had that charm that I wanted from Elly Swartz.

Same Page by Elly Swartz felt like it was written just for me: a book lover, someone who struggles with stress and anxiety, someone with a family backstory and someone who wants to leave a positive mark on the world. But this book is not just for me. It’s for EVERYONE. It follows Bess Stein, her friends and a group of rockstar librarians called The Book Warriors as they fight against book-banning. In it, we learn what book-banning might feel like from a child’s point of view and learn how we might appropriately fight for our rights from a group of caring advocates. We also learn what it’s like to feel anxious in different ways and how we can use meditation, mindfulness and my favorite…kindness meditations to help. It’s also about friendships, how they change and how we can hold onto the friends we already have while also learning, growing and expanding our friendship circles, too. Plus, it’s about families in all of their complexity and how those families impact who we are, what we believe about ourselves and how we show up in the world. It’s everything and there is a place for every reader to find a home in this book.