Ellie Engle Saves Herself! by Leah Johnson
This one is a bit older, but I've only just read it and really enjoyed it.
From the publisher, Disney Hyperion:
available in paperback January 28, 2025 / hardback published in 2023.
Ellie Engle doesn’t stand
out. Not at home, where she's alone with her pet fish since her dad moved away
and her mom has to work around the clock. Not at the bakery, where she helps
out old Mr. Walker on the weekends. And definitely not at school, where her
best friend Abby—the coolest, boldest, most talented girl in the world—drags
Ellie along on her never-ending quest to “make her mark.” To someone else, a
life in the shadows might seem boring, or lonely. But not to Ellie. As long as
she has Abby by her side and a comic book in her hand, she’s quite content.
Too bad life didn’t bother
checking in with Ellie. Because when a freak earthquake hits her small town,
Ellie wakes up with fantastical powers that allow her to bring anything back to
life with just her touch. And when a video of her using her powers suddenly
goes viral, Ellie’s life goes somewhere she never imagined—or wanted: straight
into the spotlight.
Surviving middle school is
hard enough. Surviving middle school when paparazzi are camped out on your
front lawn and an international pop singer wants you to use your powers on live
tv and you might be in love with your best friend but she doesn’t know it?
Absolutely impossible.
This is such a great story, with
excellent characters and a very cool situation.
I love the themes of
standing up for yourself and being valued as a person and a friend. It’s not
easy to stand up to friends when you’ve been hurt. Learning and understanding
consequences; and how to do hard things. I found the characters’ struggles to
be real.
Being yourself is enough.
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