A sixth grader at Jefferson Middle School, Desdemona Hillman Diller (aka Dee) is navigating friendship issues and the changing social roles experienced during pre-adolescence in Alex Thayer’s recent novel Happy & Sad & Everything True.
Juniper Green has been Dee’s best friend since they became neighbors, so when the two enter sixth grade and are in separate sections, Dee does not share her mother’s enthusiasm that this is an interesting turn of events and a wonderful opportunity for Dee to make new friends.
At school, Juniper seems to have moved on with new friends who won’t allow Dee to sit at their lunch table. Confused and seeking to escape the new pressures and demands that come with being a middle schooler, Dee hides out in the bathroom. When she hears someone kicking the grate, she responds with a desire to help. Harry Casey is the kicker, and he’s frustrated by his father’s demands. Dee calms Harry through the grate, and they agree to meet again.
Soon, Dee is known as the bathroom girl who gives advice. Although Dee discovers that it feels good to listen and offer advice—since when she’s helping people, there’s no room to be lonely—she eventually finds herself caught by the school counsellor and principal. They wonder about the location of Dee’s new role while Dee wonders how the administrators found out.
Ultimately, Dee learns that fake friends aren’t real friends and that it’s “better to be embarrassed in the truth than to question in the dark” (250).
- Donna