cover image Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best

Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best

Maria Padian, Knopf, $16.99 (352p) ISBN 978-0-375-86579-4

Almost 16, Eva and Henry (don't ever call her Henriette) have been best friends forever, with a shared understanding of demanding parents and a deep love for their home state of New Jersey. This summer, Eva is accepted to the prestigious New York School of Dance, while Henry talks her father/coach into letting her attend a tennis academy in Florida. Each girl has a dangerous voice in her head. For Henry it's that of her father, whose desire to win has Henry using every psychological trick in the book to defeat her opponents; over the summer she falls in love and learns to count on her tennis skills, instead. Eva's voice is an eating disorder that slowly whittles away at her, resulting in near-deadly consequences before she accepts the gravity of her illness. With complex characters, a wrenchingly realistic portrayal of anorexia, and a friendship that is the true heart of the story, Padian (Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress) offers a well-wrought tale that makes it crystal clear that New Jersey has much more to offer than a certain reality show might suggest. Ages 12–up. (Mar.)