You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P!

You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P!
Alex Gino
Scholastic, 2018 247 pages
Grades 3-7
Realistic Fiction

Jilly's life is filled by her loving family, supportive best friend, on-line chat friends, who bonded by a love of a particular fantasy series. It is here that she meets a friend, who develops into her first crush. Derek is both black and deaf and the relationship becomes a minefield as Jilly consistently says the wrong thing with the right intentions. When Jilly's sister is born deaf, she reaches out to Derek to help her navigate this new world. Jilly feels that she and her family are not racist, but after an unpleasant incident at the Thanksgiving table, deeply hurting her beloved black aunt, Jilly calls into question all that she thought was true and starts to ask some tough questions. Through uncomfortable, yet necessary conversations with friends and family members, Jilly reshapes her way of looking at the world and opens her eyes to the prejudice around her. When a black deaf girl is shot for not hearing police tell her to stop while jogging, the community rallies and Jilly and her family rally and take a stand against racial violence as well. The relationship with Derek changes into a deep friendship built on shared interests and trust and Jilly's family make the necessary decisions to give her sister the best life possible as a deaf girl in a hearing world.

Trail blazer, Gino, who brought us the groundbreaking title, George, featuring a child struggling with gender identity, now turns to both racial and hearing discrimination. Gino certainly has an agenda, including Black Lives Matter, white guilt, deaf awareness, and racial discrimination. Not on the agenda is internet safety, as Jilly makes a good friend via a social media chat room, but at least when she gets together with Derek in real life, adults are present. Poor Jilly bears a lot on her shoulders as she unintentionally offends both her black and deaf family and friends and then feels terrible about it. This does get the conversation going and these conversations are awkward and difficult, yet necessary. Jilly’s character is a vehicle to expose young readers to injustices happening in their own worlds and to, perhaps, initiate some conversations in their own families. I did feel a bit sorry for Jilly, though, who tried so hard and constantly felt guilty and responsible. I am unsure if kids will pick this book up and finish it for fun, yet the cover is inviting and there are humorous moments. I use to love the preachy teen-pregnancy/drug books of the 1970's and Go Ask Alice with its in-your-face anti-drug message continues to be popular, so young readers may respond to this transparent agenda-driven story. In my library system currently half of the copies of this title are checked out, including the one belonging to my library, which shows that there is a readership.