It was such a pleasure to dive into Cary Fagan’ new middle grade story The Collected Works of Gretchen Oyster.  I have always loved Cary Fagan’s writing and was especially drawn to the design of this story first, curious how John Martz and Cary Fagan together created such an interesting cover design along with the illustrations inside.   As a young person I loved to make collages. I feel like making collages of all the things you love were the 90s version of the vision board. There is something so relatable to cutting out various pictures and combining them into beautiful art as Gretchen Oyster does in the story.

Initially captivated by the voice in the story, I grew very fond of Hartley Staples as I read this lovely story.  It is an easy read in the sense that it flows so beautifully from one moment to the next. I believe Cary Fagan captures the true voice of an eighth grade person and all of the uncertainties of being at the end of the tween years, almost in high school but not quite, almost feeling grown up but not quite. Hartley’s older brother Jackson has run away from home and has been gone for several months.  It’s taken a toll on all of Hartley’s relationships: his relationship with his family, with his friends, with school but Hartley is strong and contemplative. When he finds a card with a picture and a message on it he is intrigued and makes it his mission to collect every card in the set not really understanding the drive behind the desire. We then meet the artist, Gretchen Oyster, who speaks in a very different voice and is facing her own set of difficulties and hard knocks.  I love the choice by designer John Martz to change the font to reflect the character whose story is being told, it helps to visually distinguish who is the focus and to help the reader follow along in an easy way.

Cary Fagan does an impeccable job of bringing into focus some harsh realities faced by youth today such as mental health and bullying in such a way that is far from preachy but supportive and honest.  Through this story tweens will find comfort in knowing even if they think the adults in their lives have too much on their plates they are always available to help navigate and advocate for them