CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices 2009)
Jennifer Harris is teased mercilessly by her elementary-school classmates, who call her “Fattifer” and make fun of her lisp. Her only friend is another social outcast, Cameron Quick. Jennifer and Cameron have a connection that helps them both survive tough times at home and at school. When Cameron disappears suddenly in fifth grade, rumors circulate that he has died. Jennifer’s overworked single mother will only say that he has “gone to a better place.” Fast-forward to Jennifer’s senior year in high school. She’s moved, changed her name to Jenna, and lost weight; in short, she has completely reinvented herself. Now she has a gorgeous boyfriend and hangs with the popular kids. Her life seems to be picture-perfect until Cameron shows up as a new student at her school. Cameron’s reappearance makes Jenna reevaluate who she really is and who her friends are, as well as question why her mother lied to her so many years before, letting her believe Cameron was dead. She must also face the frightening event that happened to her and Cameron when they were nine, something that is slowly and skillfully revealed to readers through a series of flashbacks. In her second novel, Sara Zarr once again shows her gift for portraying teens living on the margins through complex childhood and adolescent social dynamics. Her understated depiction of the conflict in Jenna’s family, and keen look at the dynamics of family abuse that have clouded Cameron’s life, adds further depth and verisimilitude to an original and engaging novel. CCBC Category: Fiction for Young Adults. 2008, Little, Brown, 217 pages, $16.99. Age 13 and older.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 24))
After years working to achieve popularity, Jenna tries not to think about elementary school: the lisp, the tears, the fat. When her childhood soul mate Cameron Quick miraculously reappears, Jenna's carefully cultivated persona begins to unravel. Tension builds as readers wonder how long Jenna can keep up appearances, what made Cameron vanish so many years ago and whether the two will consummate their love. Jenna and Cameron's preternatural bond remains at the core of this original story. Readers will find their fascinating connection at once believable and unfathomable. Intermittent flashbacks cast a murky, nightmarish hue and culminate to reveal a horrific moment that united Jenna and Cameron forever. This haunting and ultimately hopeful novel asserts what many teens feel acutely: that childhood experiences often leave indelible marks. A convincing, first-person narrative voice makes the painful ramifications of exclusion palpable. The costs of popularity, eating disorders and abuse also find resonance. Zarr transfixes teen readers with enticing explorations of identity and enduring love. 2008, Little, Brown, 224p, $16.99. Category: Fiction. Ages 13 up. © 2007 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Ashleigh Larsen (KLIATT Review, March 2008 (Vol. 42, No.2))
Jennifer Harris was an overweight girl who was bullied all the time in elementary school. She wasn’t the only one, though; a boy named Cameron Quick was also an elementary school outcast. The two of them became best friends. One day, Cameron just disappeared, and her mother convinced Jennifer that he was dead. As Jennifer grows up now without Cameron, she resolves to leave her old life behind. She loses weight, changes schools, and becomes part of the popular high school crowd. But, just as she is beginning to forget about her previous life as the socially tormented little girl, several clues hint that Cameron might not be dead after all. Jennifer is forced to confront emotional baggage from her past and remember some of the most horrific things that happened to her, things she put completely out of mind. The reader sees Jennifer struggle to find who she really is and be true to that self, an issue of identity to which most teens can relate. Jennifer makes hard decisions that hurt people in the process, but in this highly suspenseful novel, she finally discovers what true friendship means. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: JS--Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2008, Little, Brown, 224p., $16.99. Ages 12 to 18.

Melanie Koss (The ALAN Review, Winter 2008 (Vol. 35, No. 2))
Alternating between present-day life and flashbacks to a tragic and momentous day in her childhood, Sweethearts tells the story of Jenna Vaughn, a 17-year-old who reinvents herself from Jennifer Harris, the chubby, picked-on little girl, into a popular high school girl with friends and “the” boyfriend. But when her best and only friend from childhood, Cameron Quick, reappears, her life is thrown out of balance. Sara Zarr captures the feelings of Jenna who, inside, is still the chubby little girl who secretly ate food to fill her emptiness, whose mother wasn’t there for her, and whose only friend was a boy with an abusive home life. When Cameron returns, her insecurities return in full force. If he was alive, why didn’t he contact her? And what does he want from her now? Sweethearts is a book that is impossible to put down and that compels one to read until the bittersweet end. Category: Family/Relationships/Self-Discovery. YA--Young Adult. 2008, Little Brown & Co, 217 pp., $16.99. Ages young adult.Chicago, IL

Deborah Stevenson (The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, February 2008 (Vol. 61, No. 6))
Eight years ago, Jennifer could bear life as a plump and lisping school pariah only because of the staunch friendship of Cameron Quick; Cameron suddenly disappeared from her life just after the two had a disturbing and creepy encounter with his abusive father, and Jennifer was told he was dead. Since then she slimmed down, lost her lisp, and reinvented herself as Jenna, now a popular, seemingly happy seventeen-year-old with a cute boyfriend. The Jenna world is shaken off its foundation, however, when a very much alive Cameron turns up at her door—and at her school, where Jenna’s boyfriend becomes increasingly jealous of Jenna’s obvious absorption in her rediscovered soulmate. Though this may sound like a story of star-crossed lovers reunited, it’s more complicated and interesting than that: Cameron essentially brings up Jenna’s own lost self, forcing her to confront the girl she’d been and disowned; also, Jenna’s mother’s concerned fussing over the boy (who is now a largely homeless emancipated minor) serves to highlight how isolated she left her own daughter when she was most needed. Jenna’s narration is poignant in its uncertainty, and her voice is well balanced by the swift, effective characterizations of her friends and family (her kind and concerned stepfather is particularly nicely drawn). A thoughtful investigation of growth, change, and relationships, this will start readers thinking about their own misplaced long-ago friends and selves Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2008, Little, 224p.; Reviewed from galleys, $16.99. Grades 9-12.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Fall 2008)
Outcast Jennifer remakes herself into stylish "Jenna." When her childhood pal, Cameron, reappears, Jenna's past and present become inextricable. The friends reconnect with a natural, bittersweet intimacy that tugs at the heartstrings as Jenna comes to terms with her secrets and insecurities. It's a process many teens will relate to, amplified here with wistful prose and skillfully layered characters. Category: Older Fiction. 2008, Little, 217pp, 16.99. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

Kathleen Beck (VOYA, April 2008 (Vol. 31, No. 1))
In elementary school, social outcasts Jennifer Harris and Cameron Quick were each other's best friend and support system. Then suddenly, after they had a terrifying encounter with his abusive father, Cameron disappeared-moved, their teacher said; dead, their classmates gleefully reported. Just move on, advised Jennifer's hassled single mother. All Jennifer knew was that Cameron was lost, and her old self with him. Now Jennifer has transformed herself into Jenna, an attractive and reasonably popular high school senior, but she cannot forget her friend. She keeps her world together through rigid self-control until one morning she is shocked to see Cameron sitting in her homeroom. Where has he been? Why did he come back? As Jenna and Cameron feel their way back through their childhood memories, they learn how their shared experience shaped their lives, and how they go on from here. Zarr, author of the well-received Story of a Girl (Little, Brown/Hachette, 2006/VOYA February 2007), scores again. She has written a story of love but not a love story, despite a title and cover design that telegraph romance. She is a master of show-not-tell as she gradually reveals how her characters reacted to their experience and how each has built on the other's example of strength and resourcefulness. Readers will not mourn the lack of a conventional happy ending. "There are certain people who come into your life, and leave a mark," Jenna muses. Jenna and Cameron will be such people for those who encounter this subtle, beautifully written novel. VOYA CODES: 5Q 4P M J S (Hard to imagine it being any better written; Broad general YA appeal; Middle School, defined as grades 6 to 8; Junior High, defined as grades 7 to 9; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12). Brown/Hachette, 2008, Little, 224p., $16.99. Ages 11 to 18.