The first thing that attracted me to this book was the cover. It's gorgeous, and it features a PoC! Better than that, a character who's deaf, which I don't read or see much about in YA literature (unless I've been reading all the wrong books?). I'm glad there for the representation, and I hope if you pick this up, I'll enjoy it as I did.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this book. I really did, but I'm afraid something just didn't click completely for me. I still feel as if it's missing something, but I'm not sure what. I hate saying that, but it's true. Maybe it was the narration or the writing style--it felt stilted.

First off, the cover of this book is gorgeous! I love how bright and vibrant it is! I love the representation in it as well: a brown deaf girl who started off attending a deaf school, raised by two moms who are also deaf. Then she transferred to a regular public school. I also liked how this book had illustrations, showing off some of Julia's artwork. It's beautiful, and I loved some of the sign language illustrations as well.

One of my main complaints are Julia's outbursts. She's only sixteen, sure, and teenagers can be irrational a lot of times (I mean, I was and sometime still am), and I'm allowing that to be an excuse as to why she gets angry quite easily. I understand that she feels betrayed by her best friend, who snitched on her, but she kept going back to it, and it turned into an even bigger deal when a certain boy came into the picture.

But the good thing is that this book isn't about who gets the boy: it's about a blossoming friendship between Julia and a girl she nicknamed YP, and I absolutely loved it! Though Julia focused a lot on her own problems and became somewhat selfish, she realized what YP has problems of her own (and quite a serious one at that. I wasn't sure what the author intended, but I definitely felt she didn't reflect too much on it). She sees the sacrifices YP made for her, and though it blows out of proportion, it was definitely a relief to see the two work together.

Besides the friendship, Julia was quite serious about her art, and I found myself appreciating her passion, and even her guilt at lying to her parents about certain things. Terms were used that people in the graffiti art world would most likely understand, but I certainly didn't.

You’re Welcome, Universe is unlike any book I’ve ever encountered before.
16-year-old Julia is an Indian-American Deaf graffiti artist, who’s just been kicked out of the Kingston School for the Deaf when her so-called best friend Jordyn turns her in—for trying to cover up a slur about Jordyn. Now, Julia’s transferring to a mainstream school in the suburbs, where she makes a new tag and plans new pieces, determined to avoid attaching to anyone around her. Problem is, people keep trying to get her to open up, from her “terp” Casey, who’s required to go to her classes with her, to her art teacher Mr. Katz, to the girl who becomes her only friend, Yoga Pants, or YP. Despite her angry moms (yes, moms!) who insist that she stop illegal painting, Julia refuses to give up the one thing that makes her feel alive, in control, powerful, HERE—even when someone else in the neighborhood starts adding to her pieces, instigating a graff war.
There’s so much to love about this book. The organic diversity is just the tip of the iceberg as Gardner shows us what it’s like to be capital-d Deaf. I feel like I learned so much from reading this book; any time a topic of Deaf culture comes up in the storyline, it’s effortlessly woven in and explained for the “hearies” like myself. We get to see Julia’s daily struggles to communicate in a world that doesn’t understand her, from classes where people speak to her interpreter instead of her; to her ex-friend at work whose Cochlear Implant allows her to effortlessly date Julia’s hearie crush, Donavan; to Julia’s budding friendship with YP.
Communication is a big deal for Julia: most hearies don’t know how to sign, and the ones who choose to learn usually give up when they realize ASL is a fully-fledged language. I love the way the dialogue is constructed to show the gaps in Julia’s ability to lip read, and the way she and YP weave between signing and texting to get their points across. The dialogue shows just what it’s like for Julia on a daily basis. No wonder she’s so isolated—why bother trying when no one knows what your life is like or how to communicate with you, and the rest of them treat you like there’s something wrong with you.
Julia doesn’t have time for your bullsh*t, and that’s a big reason I love her. It’s too easy to write tragic disabled characters who just let life happen to them, but that’s the opposite of what Julia represents (and, I think, the opposite of what young adults of all abilities need to read). Granted, Julia is pissed off, but for good reason: her best friend sold her out and then starts dating her crush, she’s trying to hide her graff from her parents and the authorities, and she goes to school with a bunch of people who don’t understand her. But Julia is very clear that she wouldn’t want to be a hearie anyway. Being Deaf is a part of who she is, and she loves herself, even if the rest of the hearie world doesn’t.
I love that Julia is an artist, not only because I love reading about artists (and seeing artwork in novels like this), but also because I feel that it makes sense for her character. Graff is part of her, it’s the way she expresses how she sees the world—and it ties in with how she feels misunderstood by the world. I don’t know much about graffiti culture, but I learned a lot through reading this book. The characters raise some interesting questions: what’s the difference between vandalism and art? Should there be laws allowing graff in some places but not others? Having read the e-arc of this book, now I want to buy the paper edition; the artwork is a big part of who Julia is, and it’s beautiful.
This is another book I can’t criticize in the least, so I’ll leave you with a few caveats:
• As I said above, this is a book you want to read in the physical edition. The artwork is so important, and it’d be worthwhile to flip back and forth in the text to see it progress throughout the storyline.
• There’s little-to-no romance in this book (although this was something I loved). There’s a bigger focus on friendship—the good and the bad. Julia doesn’t see much point in dating or romance, so if that’s something you’re looking for, this won’t be the book for you.
• Language & Slang: Growing up in Queens, Julia is not really shy about cursing. Additionally, there’s a lot of graffiti culture slang (which I definitely had to look up, that’s how un-cool I am), as well as terms relating to Deaf culture. The choppiness of the dialogue also forces you to fill in the gaps along with Julia, so it’s definitely a mentally engaging book as well. So while this is a quick read in some senses, it’s definitely the kind of book you want to take your time reading.
• As previously stated, Julia is a very angsty narrator. She’s not the happy-go-lucky “every girl” character. She’s got a lot of anger and she doesn’t play by the rules. This is not something that bothered me, but I could see it being a problem for others.
Overall, I can’t give this book less than a 5-star-Knock-Your-Socks-Off rating. This is the kind of story everyone should read. Julia disproves Ableist ideologies. She’s not “disabled,” but rather just differently abled, and I love the message that sends, particularly to younger readers. It’s so important to read stories about people who are different from yourself, so I hope everyone will check out You’re Welcome, Universe.

So guys, I’ve been seeing this book all around on the interwebs, so it was a no brainer to request it when it became available on Netgalley, and I was super lucky to get approved and be able to read it.

I’m not entirely sure how to review You’re Welcome, Universe, because I have some conflicting feelings about it, even if I ended up rating the book 4 stars.

So, I decided that I would just tell you what truly worked for me on this book, and what didn’t and why, ok? Let’s start with the positives.
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WHAT I REALLY REALLY LIKED:

I think first and foremost I have to mention the diversity in this book. Julia, the main character, is a Deaf girl of Indian ascendency , daughter of a lesbian couple. This is important and it’s great!

Another thing that I have to applaud is that this was a contemporary that did not revolve around romance, and instead, its main focus was friendship and family.

I really enjoyed the writing and I thought that the author was able to give Julia a super unique voice, and even though I had problems with Julia, I did like her narration. Julia was sarcastic and I liked the type of humour (see below for my problems with her).

I have to say that I know nothing about Deaf culture, but I loved that the author explained things during the book, and made the scenes and interactions look natural, even in the botched lip reading attempts or speaking one handed while driving. I could picture it all, and I don’t think that’s an easy feat.

““Cat got your tongue?” he asks. It always baffles me when people think I’m just typing things out to be different. Or lazy. My new favorite is when they say it’s my generation. Damn millennials, never off their stupid phones! No, you ableist jerkwad . This is how I’m going to communicate with you.”

This was a very character driven book, and I loved Julia’s growth throughout the book.

I loved that the book – in this case the eARC – included the art mentioned throughout the book, and that it was included in the right places. Sometimes books with art put all those pieces of art at the end, and it doesn’t work in terms of flow. This one did.

“My old art teacher told me I draw like a man. I’ve never forgiven him. I don’t draw like anything, I draw like everything. I draw like me.”

Apart from the art, the book also showed some hand gestures that form different words, and that was a brilliant addition.
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WHAT DIDN'T QUITE WORK FOR ME:

My biggest problem with this book was actually Julia, the main character. I get that she’s 16, and I remember being 16 and feeling like everything was the end of the world. But Julia? Julia is not only a super angry teenager, but she’s purposely mean! And judgmental too, and I guess it just didn’t compute to me how she could say stuff like this:

“No. No way. I refuse to believe it. He’s not clever enough — he’s all looks. This sort of work takes brains and talent.”

She’s also bitchy and very hurtful at some points in the novel, and while I’m glad that she grew up a lot during the book, there were some things she did that totally baffled me. If you’ve read the book, I’m talking about Donovan…

YP or Yoga Pants. What’s her name? No clue! I do understand the use of name signs and I didn’t think the dialog or even the mentions to her were weird as YP. What I found weird and a bit disturbing is that we never learn her name. Never ever during the course of the book does Julia ask her new (and best) friend “hey, what is your name?“. Never!

Still on Yoga Pants – and it hurts me to write this down, because the girl does not have a name in the book – , she has an eating disorder. The information is thrown out there, and mentioned several times during the book. But it is not explored, except to move the plot along at one point. While I like the representation and the inclusion, because it’s such an important topic, the fact that YP relapsing being intimately connected to Julia, made me cringe. And the fact that this wasn’t directly addressed made me a bit uncomfortable.
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Even though I had some important issues with the book, I still really really enjoyed it. I actually appreciate that the main character is not perfect and had a lot of room to grow, because she did, and I liked that a lot. I just wished that YP had been more explored, given her importance in the novel.

But I still very much recommend it, because it is a fantastic book, and one that I might even consider getting a physical copy of, because I kind of love that cover.

Btw… this book gave me some major Switched at Birth vibes…

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This book was so refreshing! It was entertaining even as it handled some hard and rarely touched upon topics.

Julia, the main character, is a very different YA protagonist. She's very angry and tough. She fends for herself and doesn't let anyone treat her differently just because she's Deaf. I feel like her angry voice is part of what kept the book so strong. Her voice is so clear and it makes for a great narration.

I also like how the diverse elements of this book were handled. Julia is a Deaf half Indian girl with 2 mothers. It ends up really working well for this story. I like the fact that these things which were sometimes struggles were each brought up enough to address the issue, but that the book mainly focused on Julia herself.

I loved the different characters in this book and how Julia interacted with each of them. She has a different relationship with each of her moms, and I really enjoyed how the family aspect wasn't pushed to the side, but that every time Julia sneaked out to work on her art she was mindful of the effect it was having on her relationship with her parents.

I found Julia's friendship with YP to be the absolute best! I love how Julia never even attempts to ask YP her real name and how snarky Julia gets with YP when she feels YP is just trying to be cool by learning ASL. But I mainly enjoyed how the relationship progressed, and had its ups and downs like any forming relationship does.

Julia's interpreter, Casey, is also a lot of fun to read about. Julia is mean to her mainly because she's upset she has to have an interpreter in the first place, as she'd much rather fit in, which doesn't mean she wants to hear like everyone else. She's just used to her old school, where communicating wasn't as difficult as it currently is, and takes out her frustration on Casey. However, I found that as Julia learns more about Casey she does soften a bit, and I'm happy with how the story ended their relationship.

My favorite part of the book however, would have to be the art. Firstly, I love how Julia's art form is graffiti; I found it to be very new and interesting. I also liked how we got to see Julia develop in her artwork, both in class and while tagging. The fact that the actual artwork is included in the book made me so happy, because you get to see exactly what Julia had in her brain at he moment.

So to sum it up so that I don't ramble on forever about how great this book is. READ THE BOOK! It's amazing and well worth your time. It features the Deaf community, a boatload of diversity, a character who stays true to herself, and wonderful artwork.

Side Note: I think that if you enjoy the parts about Deaf culture in the book you may also like A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard.

Review - You're Welcome Universe
You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner

* Read via NetGalley for review
* Book will be released March 7, 2017

My Favorite Quotes/Lines:

“Six stencils in and it’s gone. Okay, the tag had vanished by Stencil Two, but I have a point to prove here. I’m not covering up your scribbled slur with just anything. I’m making art here. I’m creating. I’m on fire.”

“It’s only the beginning.”


4 out of 5 gnomes

A quick really interesting read. Makes you think more about the world of graffiti.

Julia’s Deaf and gets kicked out of her school for a graffiti incident. Integrating into a non-Deaf school is more than a little problematic.

Getting into a graffiti turf war is only the beginning. You get to see her make friends, loose friends and figure out more about who she is and what she wants to do.

Julia and her Moms are a great family unit. I like that they're definitely in her life and just aren't regulated to the background.

Her friends too are interesting one in a bad way the other in a surprising way. Both friendships felt very real though.

It was a pretty wild ride and I like the illustrations included in the book. This book will show you how graffiti can be an art.

♥ Quick Thoughts and Rating: Actual rating of 3.5 stars! With a heavy focus on friendship, diversity, and graffiti art, this novel was a feast for the eyes. The pacing felt wonky in places, but I still managed to make quick work of this book.

♥ Review: I thought for the most part that You're Welcome, Universe was a solid read. I believe it did a good job of depicting diversity in race, sexual orientation, and deaf, hearing, and those that were somewhere in-between thanks to technology and cochlear implants and such. For me, the best part of this book was its focus on building strong friendships, even when Julia's first BFF relationship was falling through and she had sworn off others. YWU was about supporting friends and learning to forgive and even about learning when to walk away. This book was about digging deeper and connecting with people, and even connecting with art and how it makes us feel, and what is even considered art. Speaking of art, I really dug the artwork throughout the book and getting to see firsthand what Julia and her rival were throwing up on the streets. I can only guess that it'll be beautifully done with splashes of vibrant color in the published edition, so likely even better than the already really well done black and white images that I saw on my kindle.

As much as I really enjoyed the characters and the storyline, I did have a few issues with it. I will say that I struggled a little bit with the formatting in regards to when Julia was trying to read people's lips. I get that it helps us better understand the challenges Deaf individuals face in the real world everyday and that we were probably supposed to read it as the broken bits and pieces that Julia gets, but I'm weird and a little nosy, so that's not at all how it went down with me. I'll admit that I spent an irrational amount of time trying to figure out what all the gaps and missing words were, which totally threw off my connection to the book and messed the pacing up too. My second major complaint is that we never really got what was going on with YP. From my subpar deductive reasoning skills, I think she was struggling with currently or had previously been struggling with an eating disorder. I think I liked that it didn't take over the whole entire plot of the story or even become a major secondary storyline, but if it was supposed to be that, then I really wish it would have been given just a little more attention that what it had been given.

All in all, I really loved Julia's moms, her art teacher, and her TERP. I loved the inclusion of the art and the way Julia's brain processed stuff when she was in that zone. I thought YP was a great friend. For the most part, I even loved Julia despite her brief lapse of acting like the usual teenage brat, so I'll forgive her the slip-up and how crappy she started treating people.

♥ Teaser Quote:
"I'm not better than friends, I want better friends. I want friends who are all in, all the time. It can't just be all on your terms. You have to care, care about more than just yourself."
– quote taken from an eARC of You're Welcome, Universe at 98%


♥ Rec It? Yes. If you're in the mood for something quick, equal parts light-hearted and angsty, and focused more on friendship than romance, I'd certainly say this is the book for you. It doesn't hurt that there's some pretty stellar artwork included either!

♥ A very special thanks to Knopf Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this title.

I have a lot of respect for the portrayal of Deaf culture in this book. Julia is raised in a Deaf family. She reads lips and signs. Her friend has a cochlear implant. Julia neither derides the use of a CI nor wishes for one. Her choice not to have an implant or wear hearing aids is less about not needing to adapt to the hearing world (as is sometimes the case) than about laziness. Using these devices would require more work than she is willing to put in. Julia is comfortable with her identity as a Deaf person and is initially dismissive of "hearies". Both Julia and her new classmates are forced to confront assumptions and prejudices, to see beyond a person's surface. This confrontation of cultures is certainly the strongest part of the novel. The elements of street art are a little weaker. While I love the visuals included in the book, the use of jargon felt unnatural and many elements of the plot relied too heavily on coincidence.

I’ve been eyeing this book since it was announced because ILLUSTRATIONS. Call me shallow if you please, but my eyes like all things pretty and I can do nothing about that. I even mentioned it in my Most Anticipated Books of 2017 post. So, when I saw that it was available for request, I jumped on the occasion and was thrilled when approved. Although this book took a little more time than I expected to win me over, once it did, I really enjoyed it.
You’re Welcome, Universe is written in 1st person from Julia -the MC- ‘s perspective. I loved the writing style, it is great and powerful especially with the main character having such an honest strong voice. I think the author managed to depict a true teenager’s voice. One thing that annoyed me (really, the only thing I couldn’t brush off) is the use of some ableist language, like psycho and hysterical when really the event or person described is none of those things and it was unnecessary.
This is a very character driven story, we follow Julia’s journey as she struggles to trust anyone after her best friend sells her out and get her expelled from school, as she tries to find herself and her voice through her graffiti, trying to balance between the part of her that tells her that what she’s doing is illegal and the one that cares only about expressing itself through street-art. And I loved it. The character development she went through was so raw and real that I couldn’t help but adore her. This was the kind of book that made me think by the end, this girl will be alright.
The main character is a Deaf Indian-American girl who just got betrayed by her so called bestfriend and that shows in the writing. It is intense, and very emotionally charged, even though she pretends not to care about anything or anyone anymore, she does, and very deeply so. The first word that comes to my mind when I think of Julia is angsty. Oh lord! No one can compete with the attitude that girl has got going, and that’s what made it hard for me to get into the book at first. But then I remembered what an angsty teenager I myself was (yep, 14 y/o me was no joke, all emo and dramatic) and all my frustrations with her behavior went away because they’re simply normal.
She’s just a caring passionate teenager, scared to get hurt again who puts up walls around herself, and really, who can blame her?
My favorite thing about You’re Welcome, Universe is with no doubt its focus on friendship. It has no romance whatsoever and I appreciated that so so much (and this comes from a sucker for everything romance). It shows the difference between what a real friendship is and a toxic friendship is. And that’s such an important thing for young teenagers to see, because not everyone who is present in your life, is present FOR YOU. It also shows friendship in its truest form with its ups and downs, fights and make-ups. It’s not made up to be this perfect thing where people never get hurt. It’s human.
Jordyn is the so-called bestfriend who betrays Julia to save her own skin and the worst part is that she expected Julia to be there for her and listen to her complaints despite it all. There was so much entitlement and manipulations in her behavior and I’m glad that was called out and challenged in the book. She was so self-centered, and just all around awful. My hate for her is very deeply rooted. In contrast with that there was sweet, lovely YP and I’m so fond of her. She was there for Julia even when she didn’t see it, listened to her, confided in her and it went both ways. She stood up for her, called her out and loved her.
Another relationship that I loved is the one she had with her moms Ma and Mee. It was so realistic and heartwarming. She was much closer to Mee than to Ma -which happens to most teenagers, being naturally drawn to a parent more than the other. Here again, they never hesitated to ground her and putt her back in her place when needed while being present and loving her all the same.
The illustrations added a nice touch to the book and I feel like it wouldn’t have been the same without them. It was a mix of her graffiti, things from her daily life as well as some ASL signs that were mentioned in the text. I kind of was disappointed at the end when the author didn’t show the last graffiti but I was pleased all the same.

I've read a lot of contemporary novels, but nothing quite like You're Welcome, Universe and I mean that in the best way.

Julia is a street artist, and she uses her talents to cover up a slur written about her best friend at her school, the Kingston School for the Deaf, but in the process she ends up expelled. Now shipped off to school in suburbia, Julia tries to make the best of things. Unintentionally, she enters a graffiti war with an artist she can't identify and in the process, questions friendship and what art really means to her. You're Welcome, Universe is a phenomenal debut novel that I highly recommend.

I loved the characters, they were all unique and well-written. I loved the family dynamics between Julia and her mothers, as a lot of YA novels seem to have characters with a lack of parental role models. I also loved all of Julia's friends and the way in which Julia approached the world. I know this doesn't give a lot of descriptions but Julia was just a refreshing character to read about, an had a unique perspective we often don't read about.

The plot itself was also unique, as I wasn't quite sure where it could go. The mystery about the identity of the rival graffiti artist was definitely unexpected, and I wasn't able to guess their identity. There's also artwork interspersed throughout the book and it really added another layer to the story (and makes me excited for all of Gardner's future graphic novels!).

Overall, You're Welcome, Universe is a refreshing contemporary novel with a unique plot and characters that you can easily root for. I can't wait to read more of Gardner's future work.

So many feelings about this book… First I’ll say that the writing was fast-paced and punchy which made the flow really fun to read. I also thought that the insight into deaf life was really interesting. I liked that the author didn’t feel the need to say “signed” every time somebody said something. Characters just had normal conversations, but since they were deaf I imagined them signing without the author having to tell me explicitly that that’s what they were doing. I also liked the illustrations included throughout the book and the emoticons that Julia used were a fun touch as well.

That’s about all the positive things I have to say about this book unfortunately. Julia reminded me a lot of Parker from Eric Lindstrom’s Not If I See You First. They were both just so angry as characters. I didn’t really understand where all of Julia’s anger came from. She was very quick to judge other characters and overall I thought she was very selfish with almost no development throughout the story. I mean, she calls her new best friend YP (short for Yoga Pants) throughout the whole book. We literally never learn her name. A couple times Julia just refers to her as “Pants”. Is this for real? That’s so demeaning! And her friend is apparently just okay with this? No thanks.

Julia’s relationship with her old best friend, Sydney, is strange from the start. Julia apparently feels really protective of her. So much so that she graffitis the school. But then her friend rats her out and Julia goes from protective to hating her best friend’s guts. That just doesn’t feel like a genuine relationship at all and only seemed to serve as a way to kick off the story and get the plot going.

My last issue is about the distribution of diversity in this story. I’m all for diversity in YA, but we have this one character who has a disability, is a minority, and also has two moms. It just seems a bit much for one person? I’m not saying that one person can’t have this many diverse characteristics, and the author more or less incorporated each one into the character’s previous development, but it just seems like all of the diversity is concentrated around Julia. She’s surrounded by white characters (with the exception being one of her moms) and even though Sydney is technically also deaf, she has Cochlear Implants so she’s basically a “hearie” according to Julia. It just would have felt more real if the diversity was spread out a little bit more. Share the love!

Lastly, the plot was just kind of there. It was a little confusing and not the most compelling, but it was alright. I didn’t really understand why YP’s ex-boyfriend got so much screen time, but whatever. I would have liked to have had her issues explored a bit more. She had an eating disorder, but then overcame it. But now she’s getting bullied and she has this weird relationship with her ex. But Julia’s so focused on herself that we never get to see what’s going on with YP or figure out why her dad bakes so much. The last thing I have to say about the plot is that the conflict between Julia and YP towards the end felt forced.

Overall, I probably wouldn’t recommend this book. The main character is just too angry and I felt so bothered every time I saw the letters “YP” on the page. I think it’s great that the author is trying to write a book with a deaf main character, but I would recommend Song of Summer by Laura Lee Anderson over this one (my review here).

Overall Rating: 2
Language: Heavy
Violence: None
Smoking/Drinking: None
Sexual Content: Moderate. There’s one scene in particular (not too explicit) that came out of nowhere and literally had no impact on moving the plot forward.

Note: I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

So many amazing things to say about this! This story is about Julia she is a graffiti artist who turned something ugly into something beautiful on the wall of her High school in order to stand up for her best friend only to have it bite her in the butt. Julia is one of my absolute favorite new characters. She was a supreme bad ass. She has no filter or fear to be herself and I loved that. She is transferred into a mainstream hearing school for the first time in her life. The people around her start treating her like an outcast without even giving her a chance. The only person who wants to get to know her is a girl we know as YP.
I love the friendship that develops between these two girls. I was getting all the bad ass girl power feels while reading this. I really loved the dialogue and interaction between all the characters. It felt very real to how I remember high school being. There is also cursing in this book and I found it refreshing because teens curse at least I know I did.
This book has a lot of diversity and different issues going on in the side story. There is bullying and eating disorders but they don't drive the story. The exist on the side and don't get brushed over.
Julia is Deaf, she has two moms, she is Indian, NONE of this defines her and I loved that so much. She is a diverse character but the only thing that makes her is art. She never lets people call her that poor deaf girl. She is deaf and thats okay she wouldn't change it because its part of her and she loves the community of people she is with. I loved that Deaf culture was represented here. Even when someone throws a racial sure at her she does not let it define her. Art is who she is, what she lives and breathes for! I'm not even sure what to say because I don't want to give too much away!
I loved this so much PLEASE go buy it and read it, then come talk to me about it!
FIVE STARS

I know I shouldn't be tagging the school. I know that. But I wasn't the first, and that mess had to go.
When the administration takes their own sweet time cleaning up a slur about her "best friend", Julia springs into action and uses her own graffiti to cover it up. Little did she know, her "best friend" would betray her, turning her into the principal and resulting in her expulsion from Kingston School for the Deaf. Now Julia must start over in a mainstream school.

This book was different, and I mean different in a good way. The protagonist was not one I have seen before, and the world she inhabited was new to me too. Furthermore, this was not a romance. There was romance, but that was not really central to the story. Rather, it was the friendships that took center stage.

Julia was an interesting heroine.

"Indian, Deaf, girl, two moms. "

Yes, Julia was all these things, and this idea that she didn't fit into a "box" was addressed directly, but she was also much more than that description. She knew herself, and was unapologetic about it. She had passion, loved fiercely, and took chances. She also made mistakes and judged some people too quickly and too harshly. But she learned a lot through her experiences, growing and changing for the better.

"I am on fire, I am HERE. Don't pity me."

Julia had decided to be a loner after her expulsion, but she could not resist the charm of Yoga Pants aka YP. I loved how YP was so different from Julia, but then ended up having so much in common. YP was in a healing phase herself, but she didn't let that stop her from reaching out to Julia, and she really made a gold-star effort. I loved that YP made Julia realize that she deserved better friends and she didn't have to settle for a friend of convenience.

At its core, this is a story of friendships - good and bad. Gardner illustrated friendships that were just bad, just good, and some that were complicated. I liked
I'm not better than friends, I want better friends who are all in
I love, love, LOVE books that teach, but don't preach. Julia was deaf, therefore, it needed to be addressed, but Gardner did it in such an organic way. She didn't make Deaf-culture the focus of the story, but made it a part of the story.

"It's not hearing-loss, it's Deaf-gain."

Although one of my childhood friend's parents were both deaf, I was too young to really learn about Deaf-culture. I appreciated a lot of the things Gardner wove into her story with respect to this community, as well as the peek she gave us into the street art movement.

Finally, I have to comment on the artwork. This addition added an extra layer of awesome to an already great story. I found myself looking forward to the next illustration, and I was never disappointed.

Overall: A great story of friendship filled with interesting characters, street art, and Deaf-culture.

After being expelled from her School for the Deaf for graffiti, Julia starts public school. Stuck with an annoying interpreter who also serves as a spy for her moms, she couldn't be more miserable. Her only solace is graffiti, but someone is messing with her art work, a challenge in the world of taggers. Despite being angry at the world, Julia manages to find a friend and possibly happiness. Until she discovers a betrayal that makes her question everything.

YOU'RE WELCOME, UNIVERSE is filled with diversity, so much so, that race, sexual orientation, nationality, ability etc feel universal. Whitney Gardner created unique, complex characters. Most of the time I had trouble feeling empathy for Julia. She blamed others for her problems, took no responsibility for her behaviors, treated others unkindly and had a huge chip on her shoulder. If I could have identified a reason(s) for her anger, I would have been better able to empathize. She was expelled from school not only for graffiti, but for her terrible attitude and response to being caught when confronted by the principal, yet she blamed her friend Jordyn for turning her in to save herself. She never acknowledged had she not vandalized, she wouldn't have been expelled for vandalizing. Granted, covering up the word slut to protect Jordyn had good intentions, but I don't know many principals who would have appreciated the self righteous manner in which she responded. I can't imagine how difficult the transition to public school and being stuck with an interpreter must have been, especially when that interpreter flirted with her favorite teacher while interpreting. I did like how Julia grew throughout the book and began to grow a conscience and felt guilty for lying to her favorite mother.

Julia's narration showed lines to illustrate parts of conversations she missed while lip reading. At first this frustrated me as I tried to figure out what the ---- meant. Then I realized Gardner's brilliance at allowing me, the reader, to actually feel Julia's challenges only being able to interpret parts of conversations.

Another unique aspect of YOU'RE WELCOME, UNIVERSE is the graffiti illustrations throughout the book. Knowing nothing about street art, it helped me understand what Gardner meant by her descriptions.

The weakest part of the story was that the resolution felt too easy and convenient and less realistic than the rest of this remarkable story.

My favorite line:
Julia, while working at McDonald's, after being told by a customer she didn't want her bags touched by a Muslim. "She should take her hate to Chik-Fil-A". I laughed out loud. That may be my favorite quote all year.

I highly recommend YOU'RE WELCOME, UNIVERSE to all readers.

When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural.

Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up.

Out in the ’burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off—and showing Julia up in the process. She expected her art might get painted over by cops. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.

Told with wit and grit by debut author Whitney Gardner, who also provides gorgeous interior illustrations of Julia’s graffiti tags, You’re Welcome, Universe introduces audiences to a one-of-a-kind protagonist who is unabashedly herself no matter what life throws in her way.

Honestly, words can not begin to describe the beauty of this book. This magnificent tale of e rebellious, Indian, Deaf girl growing up with two (also Deaf) mothers was such an incredible experience for me. Julia was equal parts relatable and foreign, familiar and new. I loved her, I cared, I felt for her. I felt like I was her invisible sidekick, her faithful cheerleader throughout her adventures.

Of course, I can’t talk about this book without mentioning its representation and diversity. Julia and both her moms are Deaf; Julia and Mee are also Indian. Julia’s friend, YP, is struggling with her body image and is battling an eating disorder. Overall, I can’t help but feel like this is a book everyone could see themselves represented in one way or another. For me, a sapphic teen, seeing two moms was a breath of fresh air in a YA world dominated by straight parents or – rarely- maybe two dads.

Another element that really made the book for me was Julia highlighting that she’s not the spokesperson for every Deaf person. I feel like this is a major issue that concerns all marginalized groups, because every so often a person belonging to a marginalized group will be asked to “represent” it. Drawing from personal experience I know that I, as a bisexual woman, am more attracted to girls than I am to boys. This, however, does not apply to all bisexual people. I can not speak for everyone, only for myself; and this is something that is mentioned in the book, concerning lip-reading (if I remember correctly) , and it was something that really spoke to me.

I received an eARC of this novel through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Julia is a street artist and uses her talents to defend a friend from bullying, by painting her own art on a wall in her school. The friend sells her out and Julia is expelled from her school for Deaf children and sent to another public school. Julia no longer has any friends, though she doesn't really want any friends anymore, since they just betray you. People in the hearing world have a difficult time interacting with Julia, in that they make snap judgements about her. Julia begrudgingly befriends another girl at her school, who encourages her to continue with her street art. Julia tries to balance her relationship with her moms and her artistic needs. Throw in a crush on a boy, who is major flirting with Julia's ex-best friend and you have a extremely angry main character.

I loved Julia's rough character and her anger. I found it compelling. I loved the mixture of images with text and the super cute/funny chapter heading emojis. I liked the idea that this book wasn't romantically motivated. While the character had a brief (but not overwhelming) crush on a guy at work, it didn't over take the narrative. I was interested in the facets of Deaf culture that this novel addressed. I had a great time with this book.

I loved this book. It had everything. Deaf culture, LGBT aspects and some amazing street art. All three of these things played a factor in me wanting to read this book and not a single one let me down. Everything in this book was done very realistically, from the development of the characters to the fact that not everybody magically understood Julia. I love Julia’s relationship with her Moms and I could tell how much letting them down hurt her. I love Julia’s relationship with YP and how she was such a better friend for her than Jordyn ever was. I went into this book thinking it was going to be a love story, I thought Julia was going to find out who was starting this war with her and end up falling in love. The fact that this book was more a book about friendship than anything else was a very pleasant and welcoming surprise. Does Julia always make the best decisions? No, and that’s what I love about her. She is flawed and complex, she is realistic and that’s what makes her so likeable.

Also can we just talk about the art in this book, it’s amazing and Gardner is so talented, the fact that you are given a glimpse at the artwork just adds so much to this book, especially since art is such a huge aspect of the book. It really wouldn’t have been the same without it.

If I could give this book more than 5 stars I would.

Will update with links to where I posted my review online closer to the release date.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Children’s and Knopf Books for Young Readers for the ARC, You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner. Julia is an awesome protagonist; she is righteous concerning her art style- graffiti, and her friends. When her best friend is targeted; Julia takes action:
"No one gets to call my best friend a slut, especially not up on a wall, not on my turf. She asked for help, and I took matters into my own paint-stained hands. I designed a killer piece, cut out the stencil, shook up the cans, and got to work. I'm getting away with it. I'm about to get up. On my way to becoming an all-city queen of art. I rip down the last stencil, take a step back, and admire my work. Its killer. You're welcome, Universe."
The first page does an awesome job of plunging the reader to Julia's world. She is deaf, has 2 deaf moms, a double crossing "best" friend, is kicked out of her School for the Deaf, and now attends a new school (with an interpreter, no less) all the while working at McDonalds. Where does she go from there? Well, this book rocks every page with Julia's gritty drama and her responses, actions, wit, and her love of art and illegal graffiti (legal murals) will mesmerize teens. The rocky road of high school and friendship is explored on a whole new level through authentic characters Julia, her moms, YP, Jordyn, her interpreter and art teacher. I heartily recommend this book; it is a winner, through and through.

I found this book refreshingly different. I loved the deaf main character as well as the story of her art. She was a wonderful character to follow and grow with, and I think teens will enjoy reading about such a different person with different problem sets. I will be suggesting this book to readers online and in my classroom. Thank you!

Getting to hear the inner thoughts of a deaf graffiti artist was a welcome change from my typical reading, and it did what I look for when I read: showed me a new way of seeing or thinking about the world around me. Julia's voice was relateable while still exposing subtle ableism, as well as giving sly tips to Hearies and mythbusting things like "lip-reading is easy". The graffiti-art aspects made it exciting, and the art war aspect got me emotionally engaged. I loved that the author also normalized the moms' relationship and touched on ED/body-shaming as well. It sounds like a lot, but everything wound tightly into the story alongside a little mystery, romance, and friendship-drama. There were a few minor moments that stretched believability and nudged me out of the narrative but they were fun enough that I gave them a pass. A great book that I'd recommend to fans of Eric Lindstrom, Rachel DeWoskin, or Tamara Stone.