Love, Ish

January 9, 2017
Twelve-year-old Mischa “Ish” Love is determined to be part of the first settlement on Mars—whenever that should come to be—and has done extensive research to prepare. She used to do this sort of research with her best friend Tig Diaz, but when he moved away and didn’t stay in touch, he became “DTM” (“dead to me”). Ish doesn’t connect to the other kids at school, and home is stressful, too, thanks to her difficult older sister Elliot. Ish’s worries are suddenly overshadowed when she is diagnosed with a brain tumor. The book slowly shifts into a meditation on relationships and life, and Ish’s dreams of Mars become nearly as real as her waking life. Ish’s reflections on Mars, the ways humans have failed Earth, and what it means to be alive pack a punch, though a plot thread about Elliot’s anger about learning she and Ish were adopted seems mostly there for dramatic effect. Overall, though, Rivers (The Girl in the Well Is Me) spins an affecting, hard-hitting story. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jennifer Laughran, Andrea Brown Literary.

December 1, 2016
Ish, who is determined to be among the first settlers on Mars, goes on a different and unexpected journey after she is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor.She's prone to long stream-of-consciousness monologues anyway, but after discovery of the tumor that she imagines as a sort of Brussels sprout and starting on chemotherapy and radiation treatments, many of her dreams (and nightmares) focus on her imagined life in a Mars colony. Ish's only friend, Tig, who moved away a year ago, has never once contacted her since he left. Now she's a loner, getting along well enough with her adoptive parents but navigating an unpredictable relationship with her next oldest, rather prickly sister, leaving Ish mostly to her own resources to cope with her deteriorating new existence. With many characters, especially resilient, plucky 13-year-old white Ish, broadly painted yet fully realized, this moving tale is nothing short of tragic. Although Ish's discoveries about friendship, love and life are ultimately uplifting, Rivers (The Girl in the Well is Me, 2016) pulls no punches with the outcome. Ish's struggles with treatment are vivid, and with the focus solidly on the dying girl, there's little room for distracting hopefulness. For those willing to immerse themselves in a sad, harrowing story, this is a worthwhile and affecting odyssey. (Fiction. 10-14)

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January 1, 2017

Gr 6-9-Sharp-tongued Mischa (Ish) Love is something of a square peg, both in her family and at school. Her best (and only) friend, Tig, has recently moved away, leaving a significant hole in her life. The two shared an obsession for all things to do with Mars Now, a supposedly forthcoming reality show about a Mars colony. Now that Tig has left, Ish is alone in her interest. Her adoptive parents try their best to understand her, but by waiting so long to tell Ish and her biological sister, Elliot, that they were adopted into the family while big sister Iris wasn't, damage has been done. Ish is not looking forward to her seventh grade year, but it's here, and there's nothing she can do about it. Then the new kid in her class rhymes her name with "fish" during attendance. Ish finds a spot to spend lunch alone with her Mars daydreams, but when she is ready to go back in, she hears a crack inside of her head, and she loses control and hits the ground. It turns out Ish's daily headaches weren't from missing Tig; there is a tumor in her brain. In typical Ish fashion, she names it Nirgal, after the Babylonian name for Mars. As Ish fights her cancer with chemo and radiation, she recounts her friendship with Tig, develops an unlikely bond with that new boy Gavriel, and dozes in and out of Mars daydreams. This is a book that fills a hole; very few middle school novels feature such young protagonists (Ish is only 12) with a terminal illness. The cancer story line is interspersed with many facts about Mars and space and carries universal themes of friendship, family, and school life, but make no mistake-this book packs an emotional punch. VERDICT This heartbreaking and sharply wry tale about friendship, family, fate, and illness will find a broad YA audience.-Stacy Dillon, LREI, New York

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2017
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* Most 12-year-olds haven't given much thought to their futures beyond the next sale at the mall, but Mischa Ish Love has known hers for years. She's going to be a Mars colonist. Global warming will eventually make the Earth uninhabitable, so somebody needs to try living on another planet. That person will be her. She's already sent 46 applications to Mars Now, which is scheduled to launch an expedition to the Red Planet in 10 years, and she has no doubt that she will be among its members. This long-held dream implodes on her first day of seventh grade, when she blacks out at school and awakens in the hospital, diagnosed with a brain tumor the size of a brussels sprout. Mischa is a scientifically minded and intelligent protagonist, and readers follow her first-person narration through logical observations, irrational dreamstypically about Marsand begrudgingly acknowledged emotional struggles (her personal mantra being, I am a machine ) both before and after her diagnosis. It is a reflective book, but Mischa's unique voice and way of perceiving the world are consistently absorbing, and her additional struggles with losing her best (and only) friend and coming to terms with being adopted expand it far beyond her illness. Scattered humor and scientific facts ward off sentimentality, revealing a star-bright story of love, courage, and unflagging spirit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2017
Mischa Love, who answers to Ish, is focused on her goal: being part of the first manned mission to Mars ten years from now, when she's twenty-two. She has no interest in picking out back-to-school clothes (the only fashion on Mars will be spacesuits), indulging a sweet tooth (no Cinnabon on Mars), or making friends (her former best friend Tig is now Dead To Her since he moved away and doesn't email). But when Ish collapses on the first day of seventh grade and is diagnosed with a brain tumor, she finds herself dealing with a more immediate and vital problem. Chemotherapy and radiation replace school, and Nirgal (the Babylonian name for Mars, which meant Death Star, and Ish's name for the tumor) begins to take over, leaving Ish drifting between reality and an intense series of dreams taking place both on Earth and on Mars. The writing is vivid ( Living with [Ish's sister] Elliott is sort of like coexisting with a talking, breathing shard of broken glass. You never know when it's going to poke you in the foot and leave you bleeding all over the clean floor ), and the close first-person narration keeps the reader in Ish's fast-paced mind even as that mind deteriorates, making the dream scenes powerful rather than gimmicky. Although the isolated and science-minded girl has become an increasingly common type in middle-grade fiction, Rivers imbues Ish with a sense of humor, an emotional depth, and a complexity that keep the story from becoming a cliche. sarah rettger

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)