Looking Up by Stephan Pastis || Heartwarming MG About Loss and Loneliness

Looking Up

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Timmy Failure series comes a quirky and heartwarming middle grade novel about a girl struggling with loneliness and the curveballs of life—featuring black and white illustrations throughout!

Living alone with her mother in a poorer part of town, Saint—a girl drawn to medieval knights, lost causes, and the protection of birthday piñatas—sees the neighborhood she has always known and loved disappearing around old homes being torn down and replaced by fancy condos and coffee shops. But when her favorite creaky old toy store is demolished, she knows she must act.

Enlisting the help of Daniel “Chance” McGibbons, a quiet, round-faced boy who lives across the street (and whose house also faces the wrecking ball), Saint hatches a plan to save what is left of her beloved hometown.

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Middle grade with intermittent illustrations
• Quirky female characters who steal the spotlight
• A girl who is sometimes a knight, occasionally a protector of pinatas, but always herself
• Heartwarming exploration of loss, change, and loneliness
• Unforgettable characters
• Upbeat comedy

I received a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I am a sucker for middle grade books featuring quirky characters, especially female characters. As someone who was previously a quirky middle grader, I always jump on the opportunity to read about kids just being themselves. In all its glorious, unique messiness. So I was definitely here for Looking Up and all the mushy, heartfelt goodness it promised.

Looking Up is a heartwarming middle grade book about a quirky girl (sometimes knight), loss, loneliness, and change . . . but also friendships, healing, and love.

This book walks a fine balance of funny, quirky, and heartwarming. The plot is a little all over the place, but it’s also fast-paced and fun. Never a dull moment when you’re trying to save the neighborhood and maybe your new neighbor-turned-friend. Looking Up is filled with fun and would be perfect for reluctant readers who want a plot that moves along at a nice pace but also has a little bit of depth to it.

It’s always refreshing to find middle grade books about characters who are content to just be themselves. Looking Up hits the nail on the head in that regard with Saint.

Saint is 100% unabashedly herself. While it’s true that she’s not exactly like others (and not in the “not like other girls” sense), that’s perfectly fine by her, because she enjoys just being herself. Trust me, Saint has plenty of quirky habits that I could get behind. Like rescuing piñatas. Or being drawn to things with faces (like toy knights). Or sometimes passionately yelling at adults about stuff that totally makes sense in her head but probably makes less sense at it leaves her mouth. I really enjoyed seeing a character that was just herself, no questions asked. (Well . . . not by her, at least.)

The narration style of this is light and fun, even as it touches on some pretty deep topics.

I mean, if the description of Saint above doesn’t give you any hints, she is quite the character. Prone to large ideas and even larger outbursts. Her dramatic scale goes up to a cool 19.2305. Still, there is something innately relatable in the way she quibbles with her mother, invents fantastic adventures, and is afraid of change and what it might mean.

When her favorite toy store goes out of business, and with the threat of rising prices meaning people may be forced to move, Saint decides she needs to save the day. Which is a pretty honorable decision. However, Saint goes about it a little . . . unexpectedly. I don’t want to say too much, but I’ll leave it at the fact that part of the charm of this story is following the wonky, almost out-of-touch brain of a child that is sweetly naive, entirely misinformed, but also perfectly well intentioned.

Saint isn’t alone in her adventure to protect her town after she meets the boy next door (who is decidedly less excited to meet her than she is to meet him).

To be fair, Saint doesn’t always make a great first impression, and Daniel kind of has his own things going on. I think it would be fair to say that they didn’t quite become friends so much as friendship was forced upon Daniel. But as I said, Saint has a sort of undeniable, irresistible charm (even while she’s being frustrating). When they learn that Daniel’s house may be sold, it just adds injury to insult on top of the toy store. It’s simply one change too many. Together, they vow to save their neighborhood.

Despite the fact that their alliance may have been slightly one-sided (Saint is definitely more extroverted and passionate than Daniel), the pair form a genuine, heartwarming relationship. One that, unfortunately, may be threatened by all the new things happening in town.

Make no mistake: even though this book is lighthearted and funny, it does at times give the reader a bad case of the feels.

Usually in moments they’re least expecting it. Or that was the case for me, anyway. While this book isn’t exactly racking up plot twists, there are a few that are sure to take you by surprise. Pastis does an amazing job of these brief, poignant scenes—sometimes even one-liners—that strike right to the heart of an emotion that we’ve all experienced at some point, whether that be loneliness, loss, fear of change, or any other common human emotion.

About Stephan Pastis

Stephan Pastis is the creator of the syndicated comic strip Pearls Before Swine, which appears in over 800 newspapers. He is also the creator of the Timmy Failure book series and the cowriter of the Disney+ movie Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made. He lives in Northern California with his wife and two kids.

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