After losing her sight--and the future she dreamed of--seventeen-year-old Maggie meets the one person with the ability to help her see all the possibilities life still holds ( )

I'm telling you right now, this book is The One Thing you need this September for your mature grade eight girls to read.
The voice of the narrator, 17 year old Maggie Sanders is brutally honest, insightful and laugh out loud funny but sometimes very blunt which explains why the publishers have suggested it for ages 14 - 18. For example, when Maggie's English teacher at Merchant's School for the Blind, Mr. Huff, asks her if she has something to say because she's sighing dramatically and rolling her eyes hoping he'd understand that she was sick of his stories about being a testicular cancer survivor and living with adversity and overcoming obstacles, she replies, "Actually, I can't seem to grasp the correlation between your nutsack and our eyesight."
This is one of those books that will NEVER spend any time sitting on the shelves. It will pass from reader to reader, and it will inspire students to desperate acts. Students who can't wait to return their overdues will be tempted to just walk out with it! This I already know! If you look up "sizzling hot popularity" in September you will see the cover of this book.
Here's a sample of the voice of Ben. When 10 year old Ben Milton meets blind Maggie for the first time, he has just witnessed her wipe out and he explains how good looking girls always have some tragic flaw.
"Well. The thing is? I used to be totally in love with Jessica Baylor. She sat next to me in math. She was hot. Like, she had shiny hair and shiny eyes and a shiny smile. But then? She told me she hates cake, and I'm fundamentally opposed to cake-haters. Then there was Hannah. From band? She had boobs. They were magnificent. Just thinking about them was enough to make a guy go bonkers.... He blinked once. Hard. Like he was using his eyelids to wipe the image off his brain. But the thing about Hannah was that I caught her throwing a rock at a squirrel. A squirrel, for Pete's sake. It just wasn't right. Then today when I saw you - hello - I thought you were perfect. That fall? Wow. Just... wow. But then I find out that you're a pothead. He huffed out another huge gust of air. It's tragic."
Ben is unquestionably my favourite character because he's so vibrant and loveable that I feel like I'm watching a movie instead of reading text. I should also reveal however, that I always thought it would be neat to have a baby brother. I would love to discuss the plot with you and gush over all my favourite scenes but I refuse to ruin the pleasure you'll have by reading them, unrevealed, for the first time, yourself. This book is being released September 8 2015, and I, for one, will be buying copies to have on my shelves. Although the content is definitely mature (there's a scene where Maggie goes to a club where she's underage, and then, unknowingly, gets drunk), if you have students who are reading the Fault in Our Stars, they can definitely handle the content in The One Thing. Thanks to Net Galley and Disney Hyperion for providing an electronic copy for advanced reading. ( )

A contemporary YA novel that includes one MC who experiences a life-changing complication and another who has already embraced his own challenges. Readers are introduced to teen-aged Maggie, who is struggling to come to terms with her recently developed blindness, and Ben, a boisterous and loveable kid with Spina Bifida, who helps guide her back to herself. The author does a good job of not only describing the difficulties and changes of the MCs but also of how family and friends react to these differences. This book is a coming-of-age/rediscovery story. There's a mystery subplot in the storyline too that I won't give away. Overall, this novel is worth a shot, if only to see through the eyes of an underrepresented group in fiction.

Net Galley Feedback ( )

4.5 stars
I wanted to read The One Thing because I am drawn to books about teens with disabilities or illnesses, and blindness has always been one that caught my attention even more so. I think it would be so hard to have seen and then lose your vision, because you know what the world used to look like for you, and it changes so much. You have to learn so many skills over again, and you would realize how much you used to take for granted.

The main character is six months out from losing her sight, and she is trying to adjust to the new school for the blind that she is a part of. She got in huge court kind of trouble for a prank so now on top of everything else, she's having to see a probation officer. But as fate would have it that is where she meets charismatic, funny, semiperverted ten year old Ben. And she can see again, but only a certain field of vision around him. He meets her after she falls down in the office, and he starts flirting with her and making jokes.

Turns out that Ben has spina bifida and he has to use crutches because of how weak his legs are. And that her vision is only restored when she is near him. At first, she goes along with his invitation to come to his house because she wants the tiny window of sight to stick around, but she ends up liking his company, and his mom's. And turns out that Ben's brother is the lead singer for one of her favorite bands ever.

He helps her get perspective and realize that even though soccer, and reading used to be her Thinbg
(capitalization Ben's) if it no longer makes her happy, then she needs to find new things in life to love. Ben is a swimmer, and although he has to work hard at it, he challenges himself to beat his own times, and likes the way that he feels when he is in the water.

I actually didn't see the reasoning behind her sudden vision returning, but it was an interesting theory. The emotions really had me going, and I loved how much Ben changed Maggie (aka Thera because he thinks she looks like a character in his favorite video game). But it was def on Maggie's own terms. She had to realize that yes, its bad that she can't see anymore, and that it has changed her interests, friendships, and way of life, but that at least she is alive. She can find new interests, or rediscover old ones. That sometimes friendship has awkward moments, but it is worth it to push through and be there for them and let them be there for you.

I liked that the romance was there, and went through stages of growth, nothing was easy there, just as much isn't easy for Maggie lately, besides this funny boy who has become so much of her life. The connection with his older brother is a plus. But I also appreciated that it wasn't the whole story, or even the catalyst for Maggie realizing so much and growing so much.

Everything wrapped up in such a neat way, and more hopeful and happy that I could hope for with some of the events that went down. I put it down and was pleased and I have been thinking about it all day.

Bottom Line: Emotional and heartwarming story about friendship and living with disabilities ( )