Mountain Upside Down

Alex Eager lives in Faillin, Oregon, with her grandmother, a retired librarian. Life should be going well for her. She has finally found the courage to ask her best friend PJ whether they could be more than friends, and PJ said yes. But PJ is moving away, so their new relationship will have to work over a distance.

Alex is also worried that something is wrong with her grandmother, who has become increasingly forgetful. On top of that, Faillin is holding a referendum on library funding, and the outlook is not good. Alex wonders whether anything good in her life will ever last.

This middle grade novel follows thirteen-year-old Alex as she looks for her place in her family and her community. It is funny and heartfelt, with family drama and a library funding campaign in a small town. It is also an LGBTQIA+ story in which coming out is not the focus, and a story about the role of a library in a community that does not involve book banning. Long-held family secrets and resentments run through it, and the emphasis is on learning to communicate again rather than on a final resolution.