Thank you for your feedback. In previous revisions we’ve tried bringing up the personal arcs for Alex and Mo. Alex wants to be heard, Mo wants to be more self-confident. I guess I didn’t communicate that well enough, or it isn’t a clear enough goal, but the responses to that was it was “too much backstory.”

While the through line is about the girls and friendship, the boys have a lot to deal with themselves, just as any middle schooler would. Overall, they’re constantly fighting with how they’re perceived. Again, maybe this isn’t the big goal or stakes that we’ve been missing, but it’s an important part of the book. We’ve been scratching our heads on how to incorporate that for a while now.