"To Nightowl From Dogfish"

"To Nightowl from Dogfish"
Written by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer
Review written by Diana Iozzia / Bookworm Banter


I received a free advanced reader's edition copy of this book to collaborate with Penguin Kids to write a review and create a Spotify playlist.

"To Nightowl from Dogfish" is a sweet and endearing middle grade fiction, surrounding two characters named Avery Bloom and Bett Devlin. The girls begin communicating via e-mail and continue through the entire story in letter and e-mail format, as well as other characters chiming in from time to time. Bett and Avery begin a tentative friendship as they find out their fathers are romantically involved with each other. Their fathers plan to send the girls to a summer camp where they meet. During the adventurous, funny summer, the girls grow closer but their fathers grow apart. This begins the next adventure: getting their fathers back together again.

This book brings back all the nostalgia of children's films I used to love that involved summer camp: primarily, "The Parent Trap" and "It Takes Two". The e-mail and letter format was a fun way to read. I felt the younger characters to be very believable in their communication, which does not often occur in books for middle grade girls. I felt this book could be enjoyed by boys as well, but I imagine the target is pre-teen and teen girls. Avery is very mature for her age but becomes more silly with Bett. In contrast, Bett becomes more serious when around Avery, but still she keeps her childish antics.

This book has a lot of heart, and I was definitely brought back to the early days of my teen friendships. I think this has a very healthy portrayal for young teens learning about LGBT issues as well. It's a great coming of age story in many ways.

Most of all, it was fun!!!