Sean Griswold's Head [Paperback]

From the title, I assumed that Sean Griswold's Head would be either A.) a male POV story about one guy's innermost thoughts or B.) something gory in the zobie genre. It's neither. It's a girl-centered coming of age story that deals with Payton Gritas' troubles after her parents reveal that her dad has multiple sclerosis--and that they've hidden this fact from Payton for six months. Out of fear and anger, Payton shuts her parents out and won't talk to them. When the school counselor tells her to find a Focus Object to center her attention on and write about in a journal, Payton gets unconventional and chooses a living object, or part of one: the head of the boy who has sat in front of her in class for years. Sean is practically furniture--he's always there in Payton's life, but not anything she's really paid attention to, until now.

The more Payton stares at Sean's head and makes notes about his appearance, the more she wants to know about his life. To discover the man behind the noggin, as it were. Before you know it, she's actually talking to Sean and they're bonding over bike-riding, their shared love of Seinfeld, and a lot of fun conversations. Payton's basically getting close to Sean because she can't get close to her family, due to her fears. The romance is not the core of the book, but it is very sweet. Sean's a good match for Payton, a kind-natured and non-dramatic guy who's still hardcore enough to train for triathlons. His dedication to athletics allows him to see that Payton needs a physical outlet after she quits basketball, and her new cycling hobby really helps her out. It's great that her problems aren't just magically improved by her having a crush on Sean--the human connection combined with other postive activities is what helps, though she does experience some setbacks and self-sabotage along the way.

The only downside: Payton complains that her parents left her out of the loop when it came to her dad's MS, but the book actually does prove that she's too immature to handle the information. Yes, her parents should have told her sooner, but it's not right for her to shut out her father while he's living through this serious illness. Still, her reaction was very realistic for an order-loving 15-year-old. Payton's a genius, but sometimes the most academically gifted kids have underdeveloped coping mechanisms, and for Payton, her dad's varied symptoms are almost as bad as if he had untreatable cancer. She is hurt by uncertainty, by the very idea of seeing her dad in any way diminished. The book handles this difficult issue in a respectful and honest way, and it never suggests that there are easy ways to "get over" a loved one's diagnosis.

The side characters like Grady the Goth and Payton's swim-champion older brother Trent add nicely to the story, but her flirty best friend Jac is the absolute best of the supporting cast, with her out-there sense of fashion and her pet names for people like "lollipop," "babycakes," and "gumdrop". Jac's scheming on Payton's behalf is so amusing, it's easy to see why these two friends belong together--they're two extreme people who balance each other out when combined, and Jac is fleshed out enough to have some problems and pursuits of her own. The Focus Object journal excerpts are hilarious and really show Payton's personality to full advantage. This story has wit and hilarity balanced with plenty of realistic obstacles and I wholeheartedly recommend it to YA readers.

Fifteen-year-old freshman Payton Gritas is a straight-A student and basketball player with a great best friend and loving parents, but her world falls apart when she discovers her parents have kept a huge secret from her for months. Her father has multiple sclerosis. Payton is furious that her parents shared her father's diagnosis with her two older brothers but not her. She is also fearful about what MS will do to her father. Can he continue work as a dental surgeon? And what about basketball? He has played it his whole life, including on a college team, and taught the game to Payton, but MS is making it increasingly hard for him to play. And what if MS actually kills him?

Payton's drops out of basketball, which she feels too guilty playing when her father can't, lets her grades drop, and refuses to talk to her parents. As her silence drags on, her mother insists that Payton talk to the counselor at her school. Payton reluctantly agrees but struggles with the "focusing" exercise the counselor assigns. She wants Payton to choose something to concentrate on that she has no emotional investment in and write detailed reactions and feelings about this "focus object" in a journal in order to work up to eventually being able to face her feelings about her father's illness.

While ignoring a video in biology class, Payton is struggling to come up with a focus object when Sean Griswold, who has sat in front of her since third grade because his name appears before hers alphabetically, turns and remarks that he has trouble focusing on videos in class. Payton suddenly decides this is a sign. She should write about Sean Griswold. Specifically the part of him she knows best, his head, which has been blocking her view of the teacher for years.

Many author's would choose a dark tone to approach a serious subject like a major illness. Instead, Lindsey Leavitt employs the intriguing alternation of drama and comedy often called "dramedy." The main source of Leavitt's humor is Payton's quirky take on life. Whether intentionally or not, over the course of the book Ms. Leavitt also impressively reveals Payton's awkward, and frequently funny, progress through many of the classic stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance), famously described in Elisabeth Kübler-Ross's, On Death and Dying.

There are three main plots centered on Payton's significant relationships, each presented from Payton's comically skewed perspective. The lynch pin of the novel is Payton's relationship with her father. Though she spends most of the book refusing to even talk to him, the love and concern emanating from both of them are clearly and touchingly demonstrated. Ms. Leavitt also does a wonderful job presenting the struggles of the family as a whole as they adjust to the major changes in their dynamic due to the father's MS.

A second important plot is Payton's relationship with her best friend Jaclyn. Jac is from a prosperous family, but her father deserted them, and her mother neglects Jac. As a result, Jac's main emotional support is Payton. Payton was there for Jac when Jac's father left, acting as both a "drill sergeant" and protector to her lovely, boy-crazy friend. To keep Jac safe, who was a young teen at the time, Payton told a boy that Jac was becoming dangerously physically involved with that Jac had "mono so he would stop jamming his tongue down her throat every time they saw each other."

Now that Payton has father problems of her own, Jac does her best to be there for Payton. But since the two girls have very different personalities, Jac's approach to emotional support is flamboyantly different than Payton's. She is an impulsive, social butterfly into fashion and the drama club, and all of her help involves cheerleading Payton by shoving Payton into coming out of her despair and self-imposed isolation. In particular, Jac believes that Payton should get to know much more about Sean than just the back of his head. Jac's crazy schemes to help her friend semi-stalk Sean as "research" are another strong source of humor in this book.

A third central plot is the romantic relationship that develops gradually and subtly between Payton and Seth. What a welcome change of pace in today's teen novels, where obsession is so often presented as "love," to encounter non-threatening (but anything but weak) Seth who is an empathetic listener, compassionate, and an all-round decent guy. He is also a dedicated athlete who swims and bikes and has the goal to participate in a triathlon when he is old enough. He and Payton begin their relationship bonding over hardcore biking, which offers the athletic Payton a chance to substitute another challenging sport for the basketball she's sacrificed.

By the way, I personally found the biking scenes believable, including how relatively quickly Payton got into shape for a marathon, since I myself rode in a 100-mile marathon at eighteen having only previously ridden 26 miles tops before that day. The fact that Payton is in shape from basketball and that she constantly bikes both outside and in spinning classes before the marathon makes her quite believably prepared to take on a 75-mile marathon.

Finally, there are several other subplots built around Payton's relationships, and each of the characters involved, though only relatively briefly onstage, are vivid, realistic and poignantly sympathetic. They include Payton's mother, her two brothers, and most of all Grady, Seth's Goth friend. The evolution of Payton's understanding of who Grady is and what his life is actually like is brilliantly done. The scene that is the climax of this relationship is one of the most moving parts of the book

I highly recommend this book for all ages, not just teens. There is no violence, foul language, sexual content, alcohol or drugs, so it can safely be read even by preteens, but it is emotionally engaging enough to be enjoyed by adults.

Sean Griswold's Head is an adorable and hilarious contemporary with just the right amount of serious-ness and I wouldn't expect any less from Lindsey Leavitt.

Like with her MG books, Princess for Hire, Lindsey Leavitt manages to create a protagonist is relatable and flawed in the perfect way. I loved Payton and I thought her struggle with her father's illness and the way her family chose to deal with it was exceptionally done and I really felt for her. I thought her use of Sean Griswold's head as her focus object was awesome and certainly made for some hilarious situations. UH and the first page had her shopping for planners. The very first page. I am a planner addict. This girl is my new BFF, along with Anna from Anna and the French Kiss (I loveeeeee old French movies).

And speaking of Sean Griswold - I am absolutely in love. His character is adorable and his relationship with Payton reminded me a lot of my high school days - those cute, awkward conversations that you just want to dissect over and over again.

I thought the story and character development throughout Sean Griswold's Head was timed perfectly. It wasn't moving too slowly and it wasn't moving too fast. I felt like some of the side characters weren't fully fleshed out, but I didn't care enough about them to care about it, really.

Overall, I loved Sean Griswold's Head. Lindsey Leavitt knows how to write the funny, romantic, cute, yet serious very well. There were a ton of hilarious moments throughout the book and I'll definitely be re-reading it in the future. I recommend it to any fan of contemporary YA and anyone in need of a pick-me-up.