Lindsey Leavitt's Sean Griswold's Head (Review and Giveaway!)

Summary/Cover Image from Pubisher's Website:

What if your first love was literally sitting right in front of you?

According to her guidance counselor, fifteen-year-old Payton Gritas needs a focus object-an item to concentrate her emotions on. It's supposed to be something inanimate, but Payton decides to use the thing she stares at during class: Sean Griswold's head. They've been linked since third grade (Griswold-Gritas-it's an alphabetical order thing), but she's never really known him.

The focus object is intended to help Payton deal with her father's newly diagnosed multiple sclerosis. And it's working. With the help of her boy-crazy best friend Jac, Payton starts stalking-er, focusing on-Sean Griswold . . . all of him! He's cute, he shares her Seinfeld obsession (nobody else gets it!) and he may have a secret or two of his own.

In this sweet story of first love, Lindsey Leavitt seamlessly balances heartfelt family moments, spot-on sarcastic humor, and a budding young romance.

Review:

After reading Lindsey Leavitt's bubbly and sparkly Princess for Hire last year, I was eager to read more by her. Thankfully enough Sean Griswold's Head is the perfect sophomore attempt by her, because not only is it sweet and adorable, but it has just the perfect amount of realism to have any fan of contemporary YA begging for more.

Sean Griswold's Head tells the story of Payton Gritas, the star student, friend, and basketball player- she truly is the girl who manages to have it all together repeatedly. That is until she finds out not only that her dad has MS, a crippling and scary disease, but her family has been hiding it from her for the past six months. Payton does not know what to do. Should she be mad at her family for hiding it from her and pretending everything was normal, or should she just go back to living her normal life? Payton picks the first, and after a few weeks of silence to both her parents and brothers, she ends up in the guidance consoler’s office, forced to pick a focus object to focus her emotions on. Surprisingly enough, she picks Sean Griswold, or more exactly his head, but as she begins to learn more about Sean, the more she wants to know him, and with the help of her best friend, Sean and she end up being sort-of-friends and maybe even more... However, what happens when Sean learns about her focus object? Will she loose him once and for all? In addition, why is her best friend acting so strangely lately? Better yet, will she ever mend her problems with her family? Only time and more pages will tell in this fun, fast-paced tale of one girl's path to growing up and dealing with life's many problems and complications.

One of the things I always love most about Lindsey Leavitt's books is that she always has such fun and relatable main characters, and Payton Gritas was no different of course. Payton is a girl who I clicked with automatically, as I am sure many others will, because not only is Payton bubbly and witty but most importantly she is real. For one, her feelings and confusion over her dad's disease will ring true to anyone who has ever been through a similar situation, and secondly, her attempts at first love will have readers laughing as well as reminiscing about why they did to get their first boyfriend. Adding to this, I enjoyed the detail Lindsey put in the relationships between not only Payton and Sean but also Payton and her father because both added yet another fantastic touch of realism to the story.

Another aspect I adored about this book was the premise and thankfully enough the execution of the idea was even better. I loved the idea of a focus object because it leads to so many great moments involving Sean and Payton as well as biking surprisingly enough. Better yet, Sean Griswold's Head even surprised me at times with several twists and turns the story took.

Lastly, Lindsey Leavitt's writing improved greatly in this book because not only did she create such a well-spun story, but also her characters managed to jump of the page and come to life within the first chapter and throughout the rest of the book.

Full of wit, fun, and aw-worthy moments, Sean Griswold's Head as well as its author are sure to become new favorites among readers of YA fiction!

Grade: B+

Sean Griswold's Head is now out!

Source: Kate at Blomsbury

I also have ONE copy of Sean Griswold's Head to giveaway. To enter, please fill out the form below. Also, here are the rules for the giveaway:

~ Must be 13 years or older
~ Must have a US mailing address
~ This giveaway will end on April 1, 2011!

*THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.*