Sean Griswold's Head

Sean Griswold's Head
By Lindsey Leavitt
Bloomsbury, 2011. 276 pgs. Young Adult

When Payton Gritas finds out that her father has MS--and that her family put off telling her for several months--she refuses to speak with them, so they make her meet with the guidance counselor. As part of her counseling, Payton has to keep a journal about a focus object. At first, she has no idea what to focus on, but then she focuses on something right in front of her: Sean Griswold's head. Since their teachers favor the alphabetical order way of seating students, Payton has spent years near Sean's head, but she's never really gotten to know Sean. However, as she starts focusing on his head, she finds herself wanting to get to know him better, which seems to be going well until Payton's best friend Jac starts pushing her to move faster than she's ready.

I really enjoyed reading about Payton and Sean; I found the idea of using Sean's head as a focus object to be a bit far-fetched, and Jac was over the top and I didn't feel like their friendship was developed enough for me to understand why Payton would want to be friends with her. However, I did think the plots of Payton and Sean's budding romance and Payton dealing with her dad's illness were well-developed, interesting, and realistic.

AE