Planning Perfect

Sixteen-year-old Felicity Becker, who’s Jewish and white, dreams of becoming a highly sought-after event planner in this gleeful rom-com. When her original strategy to become president of her school’s event organizing committee are derailed, Felicity, hoping to impress the internship panel at a top event coordinating agency, endeavors to organize her flighty, social butterfly mother’s wedding. Contending with her mother’s lackadaisical attitude regarding nuptial arrangements and Felicity’s increasingly emotionally withdrawn bestie, Felicity finds stability and companionship in Swedish and Korean American friend Nancy Lim, who offers her family’s Vermont apple orchard as a wedding venue. Over the course of Felicity’s preparations, she spends more and more time with Nancy outside of wedding planning, swimming in a quarry and creating their own mini-golf course, forcing Felicity to navigate a burgeoning understanding of her sexuality amid matrimony-related turmoil. Chapter titles counting down the days until the wedding lend urgency. Via overwrought emotional conflict, tidy resolutions, and Felicity’s approachable, comedic narration, Neil (Once More with Chutzpah) deftly examines challenges surrounding dating and sexuality, intergenerational friction, and mental health. Ages 12–up. Agent: Lauren Spieller, Triada US. (Feb.)