The Girl Least Likely

Gr 8 Up–Gretchen, a junior in high school, loves to hang with her sister and cousin who are in college. So when the two are home on break, rather than staying home eating snacks and watching vintage romantic comedies on Netflix, Hen and Carmen convince Gretchen to use a fake ID and join them on a night out at a comedy club. Totally out of character, Gretchen poses as Carmen’s roommate Sabrina and ends up onstage for the open mic night. It turns out that Gretchen likes being onstage in front of strangers. In the meantime, she begins to fall for her long-time BFF, Sam, who is moving at the end of the semester, and also starts to have feelings for Jeremy, who works at the comedy club and offers her guidance on how to perfect her act. She believes that her life might be mirroring the plot of one of her beloved rom-coms. Readers will truly be entertained by Gretchen’s exploration of the world beyond her little bubble at home. The large cast of characters has various skin tones; Gretchen and Hen are white and Carmen is half Filipinx.