Kiss Number 8 by Colleen A.F. Venable, Ellen T. Crenshaw
Published by First Second on March 12th 2019
ISBN: 1250196930
Pages: 320
Goodreads

Mads feels pretty good about her life at the moment. Between church with her family, baseball games with her dad, and school with her best friend Cat, high school is going pretty well. Plus, Mads has kissed seven different people. They’ve all been okay so far, but she doesn’t really get the fuss until she realizes that she doesn’t want her eighth kiss to be Adam, her neighbor with an obvious crush on her. She wants it to be Cat. Add to that a family secret that her dad has been hiding, and Mads’ good life has just become seriously messy.

Venable crafts an emotional, realistic story of a girl discovering who she is, how to deal with changing relationships, and finding her place in the world through both familial relationships and new friendships. Chenshaw’s pen-and-ink style illustrations bring to life the emotions of each character, drawing the reader along. Together, they explore themes of sexuality, identity, trust, and belonging. A fantastic choice for all middle and high school collections.

The epilogue strikes a particularly poignant, hopeful, and resonant note that will stay with certain readers for a very long time.

Reviewed by Sarah Cropley, Scarborough Public Library.