Just Lizzie
Karen Wilfrid
Clarion Books
Published November 14, 2023

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About Just Lizzie

A 2024 LAMBDA AWARD FINALIST

In this beautifully written contemporary middle grade debut, an eighth grader’s study of asexuality in science class leads her to understand her own asexual identity as she embarks on a journey toward self-discovery and self-advocacy. For readers of Alex Gino and Ashley Herring Blake.

“There’s the part of me that doesn’t understand kissing or cuteness or attraction, and then there’s the part of me that feels so lonely. How do I make sense of those two parts? Maybe I’ll never make sense of them.”

What do you do when there’s a question inside you that feels so big, you don’t know how to put words to it? How do you even begin to ask it?

Fourteen-year-old Lizzie is experiencing a lot of change: Her family had to move after the incident with their neighbor, leaving behind not only her beloved apple tree but what feels like her childhood along with it. Lizzie’s brother is too busy for her in his first semester of college, and her friends are more interested in dating than dolls. It’s hard not to feel left behind, especially as she tries to explain the fact that she still has zero interest in boys, girls, or the baffling behavior known as “flirting.”

But just as Lizzie’s world feels like it’s closing in, a class lesson on asexual reproduction in plants piques her curiosity, leading her to look up whether people can be asexual too—and suddenly her world opens up. Lizzie finally finds an identity, a word for all her messy, unnamable feelings that feels like it fits, although she quickly realizes that a label isn’t enough if no one believes it’s real.

Accessible, moving, and compassionate, Just Lizzie effortlessly braids a nuanced individual journey of identity with the bittersweet angst of growing up, growing apart, and learning there are many ways to live and love.

My Review

I have zero surprise that this book was nominated for awards.

This is one of those books that has so much going on in it, but it’s paced so perfectly that the story never feels cluttered or too busy. It never feels like a thread is dropped only to awkwardly reappear later.

At the start of the story, Lizzie is in the midst of a lot of changes. Her family recently moved from a house she loved because of an incident with a neighbor. This incident left Lizzie and her mom traumatized. Lizzie’s best friend has also just started dating a boy from school. Dating and attraction don’t make sense to Lizzie, so she struggles to respond to her friend’s relationship troubles and questions about who she likes.

One really cool part of the book is that Lizzie takes a self-defense class on Saturdays. In the class, she learns about fight, flight, and freeze responses. Learning to defend herself makes her feel more empowered. She also builds surprising connections with a couple of mentors through the class.

Adults in Lizzie’s life don’t always respond to her in the ways she expects. She faces disappointments, but she also has experiences where adults she thought would brush her off take time to see her. I loved that.

I don’t think I went into this book expecting it to be a favorite, but this is a story I’m going to hold onto for a long time. Just Lizzie perfectly captures that middle school experience where so many changes happen so quickly that it’s hard to keep up. I loved the ace representation. It’s an incredible book, and I hope that a lot more people discover and read it.

Content Notes

Recommended for Ages 8 to 12.

Profanity/Crude Language Content
Mild profanity used very rarely.

Romance/Sexual Content
References to kissing and feelings of attraction. Boys show each other diagrams of the human body from their science textbooks, giggling and trying to make people uncomfortable. Vague references to making out or touching. (Nothing is described in the scene.)

Spiritual Content
None.

Violent Content
A neighbor pushed Lizzie’s front door open after being asked to leave, scaring Lizzie and injuring her mom. Lizzie takes a self-defense class and practices defensive maneuvers. A boy at school repeatedly kicks Lizzie’s chair and, at one point, shoves her.

Drug Content
None.

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Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday

I’m sharing this post as a part of a weekly round-up of middle-grade posts called Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday. Check out other blogs with posts about middle-grade books today on Marvelous Middle-Grade Mondays at Always in the Middle.