Everything I Know About You: 10/28/19

Everything I Know About You by Barbara Dee is set primarily during a school trip to Washington D.C. For this school it's done in seventh grade — while here where we live, it's an eighth grade event.

Tally and her friends have been paired with their worst enemies — people who bullied them in the past. The teacher running the trip swears that she has put lots of thought into the room assignments and that the goal is for the entire school to come closer together.

Tally is a bit eccentric. She follows her own ironic style and that has been the source of most of her teasing. Sonnet was teased for being the new girl. Caleb aka Spider was teased for being too timid. Tally wants to be with her friends and to protect them from the bullies and the clone girls (a clique of girls who all appear to dress and act the same).

The leader of the clone girls, Ava, is Tally's roommate. To make matters worse, Ava's mother is a chaperone. Interacting with the mother and seeing how she treats her daughter helps Tally realize that things might not be clone perfection for Ava.

Ultimately this book is about a schoolmate recognizing an eating disorder in another student. It's about the struggle to get her to admit she needs help, and to trust oneself to seek help for someone who isn't exactly a friend.

The framing story of Everything I Know About You is the road trip, and thus the road narrative spectrum. As Tally and her classmates are students and are bound by the rules that the teacher and chaperones outlines and are therefore marginalized travelers (66). The destination is the city of Washington, D.C. (00). As the school is close enough to reach Washington by bus and it's a direct route with no stops, I am inferring an interstate route (00). Put all together, this novel is about marginalized travelers going to the city via the interstate.

Five stars

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