cover image We Regret to Inform You: An Overachiever’s Guide to College Rejection

We Regret to Inform You: An Overachiever’s Guide to College Rejection

Ariel Kaplan. Knopf, $17.99 (352p) ISBN 978-1-5247-7370-0

Mischa Abramavicius, 18, is certain that being the best student at exclusive Blanchard High will open doors to a top college and set her on a path toward a better future. Despite her high test scores and a stellar GPA, however, Mischa is rejected from every school that she applies to, including her safety school. Detecting that someone has purposefully derailed her life, Mischa attempts to get help from her school’s dean and college counselor. When no help is forthcoming, she teams up with a group of girl hackers, who call themselves the Ophelias, to find out who might be cruel enough to act against her. In her sophomore effort, Kaplan (Grendel’s Guide to Love and War) takes on the highly stressful world of college admissions. Written with humor and heart, her cautionary tale is a reminder that students are more than their GPA and test scores—or, as one Ophelia puts it, “That avatar is not you.” Ages 12–up. [em]Agent: Hannah Bowman, Liza Dawson Assoc. (Aug.) [/em]