Falling Over Sideways

Sonnenblick, Jordan. Falling Over Sideways. 2016. 257p. ISBN 978-0-545-86324-7. Available as an audiobook on Overdrive.

An 8th grader in middle school, Claire’s life has not been easy. Her friends have graduated dance class and are now practicing with the high schoolers, while Claire remain stuck with the training bra crowd. Her brother Matthew, a junior in high school, is smart, dedicated and the clear favorite sibling in their household. She’s picked on at school, and even a once good friend, Ryder, is now her number one enemy, rubbing in when he makes the saxophone first chair and she only makes second.

But when Claire is the only person in the room when her father suffers a devastating heart attack, her life suddenly does a 180. She saved her father, and now she’s holding the family together. Her brother Matthew can’t handle the pressure and is starting to crumble in school. Her mother is convinced Claire’s father will get better and seems in complete denial. Dance, band, and school suddenly lose their urgency. And everyone who looks at Claire now see a different girl.

Claire doesn’t want any of this, however. She wants to return to the life she had before, when she was looking forward to her father joining her for the father daughter dance at her music studio. She wants a quiet 2nd chair band experience. She wants her friends back. But just like her father must work hard to regain some of his former strength, so must Claire. Can she survive being the hero?