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From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

When Park first spots Eleanor, it isn't love at first sight as the ill-at-ease girl looks for a seat on the bus. " 'Jesus-fuck,' Park said softly, nodding to the space next to him, 'just sit down.' " But Park's initial distaste slowly becomes attraction as they bond over mutual interests, especially music. Although Park hardly hangs with the popular crowd in high school, Eleanor is a true outsider, moving through the world like someone who doesn't believe she's worthy of love. Recently back with her family after time in foster care, Eleanor has no privacy in their cramped home, where there's never enough money and too little safety with her mother's dangerous boyfriend on the scene. Meanwhile, biracial (Korean/white) Park is increasingly at odds with parents who don't seem to understand who he is or how he expresses himself. Both his dad's anger and his mom's dismissal of Eleanor hurt. Eleanor and Park's alternating perspectives follow them from the time of their initial encounter through their growing intimacy in a tender and complicated love story. Rainbow Rowell drills down to the deepest levels of her characters as the beautifully developed relationship between Eleanor and Park is affected by the tumult in their lives. Prejudice and assumptions due to class, race, and other dimensions of appearance (Eleanor's weight, Park's choice to wear eyeliner) are portrayed as they play out in real life-in ways both subtle and overt. Believable, well-developed secondary characters add to the richness of a novel in which everyone is achingly, infuriatingly, poignantly human, for better and for worse. (Age 14 and older)

CCBC Choices 2014 © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2014. Used with permission.

From Horn Book

July 1, 2013
It's the start of a new school year in 1986 Omaha when sophomores Eleanor and Park meet on the bus. She's an ostracized "big girl"; he's a skinny half-Korean townie who tries to stay out of the spotlight. Their slowly evolving relationship is life-changing for them both. Rowell imbues the novel with rich character development for a heart-wrenching portrayal of imperfect but unforgettable love

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Horn Book

Starred review from May 1, 2013
It's the start of a new school year in 1986 Omaha when sophomores Eleanor and Park meet for the first time on the bus. They are an unusual pair: she's the new girl in town, an ostracized, bullied "big girl" with bright red curly hair, freckles, and an odd wardrobe; he's a skinny half-Korean townie who mostly wears black and tries to stay out of the spotlight. But as they sit together on the school bus every day, an intimacy gradually develops between them. At first they don't talk; then she reads his comics with him; he makes her mixtapes of his favorite rock bands; they hold hands; and eventually they are looking for ways to spend every waking hour together. Their slowly evolving but intense relationship is chaste first love, authentic in its awkwardness -- full of insecurities, miscommunications, and sexual awakenings -- and life-changing for them both. When Eleanor's unstable home life (replete with abusive stepfather) ultimately tears the young lovers apart, the novel ends realistically: uncertain, yet still hopeful. Rowell presents her teen protagonists' intelligent observations, extreme inner desires, and irrational feelings through compelling alternating narrations. She imbues the novel with rich character development, a spot-on depiction of the 1980s, and powerful descriptive passages ("Holding Eleanor's hand was like holding a butterfly. Or a heartbeat. Like holding something complete, and completely alive"). It's an honest, heart-wrenching portrayal of imperfect but unforgettable love. cynthia k. ritter

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from April 29, 2013
Eleanor is the new girl, big, red-haired, dressed with a defiantly grungy lack of style, and a perfect target for ridicule and harassment in half-Korean sophomore Park's Omaha, Neb., high school. Park doesn't even want the weirdo sitting by him on the bus. But no one else will share a seat with Eleanor, so heâ€"a misfit himselfâ€"reluctantly offers. Each day that passes gives them a chance to learn more about each otherâ€"the books they like, the music they share. They start to rely on each other to get through difficult times with their families and classmates. And eventually what they have becomes love. Narrators Rebecca Lowman and Sunil Malhotra turn in superb performances in their portrayal of Eleanor and Park. Despite her age, there is nothing sweet or childlike about Eleanor, and Lowman refrains from portraying her that way. Lowman's voice and tone believably capture the too-mature-too-soon strength of a girl living a hard life. Malhotra has a rich, smooth delivery, and perfectly renders Park as he fluctuates between confidence and insecurity. Listeners of all ages will be able to enjoy this audio edition. Ages 13—up. A St. Martin's Griffin hardcover. (Feb.)

Nonfiction

From School Library Journal

Starred review from February 1, 2013

Gr 9 Up-In this novel set in the 1980s, teenagers Eleanor and Park are outsiders; Eleanor, because she's new to the neighborhood, and Park, because he's half Asian. Although initially wary of each other, they quickly bond over their love of comics and 1980s alternative music. Eleanor's home life is difficult; her stepfather physically abuses her mother and emotionally abuses Eleanor and her siblings. At school, she is the victim of bullying, which escalates into defacement of her textbooks, her clothes, and crude displays on her locker. Although Park's mother, a Korean immigrant, is initially resistant to the strange girl due to her odd fashion choices, his father invites Eleanor to seek temporary refuge with them from her unstable home life. When Eleanor's stepfather's behavior grows even more menacing, Park assists in her escape, even though it means that they might not see each other again. The friendship between the teens is movingly believable, but the love relationship seems a bit rushed and underdeveloped. The revelation about the person behind the defacement of Eleanor's textbooks is stunning. Although the narrative points of view alternate between Eleanor and Park, the transitions are smooth. Crude language is realistic. Purchase for readers who are drawn to quirky love stories or 1980s pop culture.-Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

From Booklist

Starred review from January 1, 2013
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Right from the start of this tender debut, readers can almost hear the clock winding down on Eleanor and Park. After a less than auspicious start, the pair quietly builds a relationship while riding the bus to school every day, wordlessly sharing comics and eventually music on the commute. Their worlds couldn't be more different. Park's family is idyllic: his Vietnam vet father and Korean immigrant mother are genuinely loving. Meanwhile, Eleanor and her younger siblings live in poverty under the constant threat of Richie, their abusive and controlling stepfather, while their mother inexplicably caters to his whims. The couple's personal battles are also dark mirror images. Park struggles with the realities of falling for the school outcast; in one of the more subtle explorations of race and the other in recent YA fiction, he clashes with his father over the definition of manhood. Eleanor's fight is much more external, learning to trust her feelings about Park and navigating the sexual threat in Richie's watchful gaze. In rapidly alternating narrative voices, Eleanor and Park try to express their all-consuming love. You make me feel like a cannibal, Eleanor says. The pure, fear-laced, yet steadily maturing relationship they develop is urgent, moving, and, of course, heartbreaking, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

From Kirkus

Starred review from December 15, 2012
Awkward, prickly teens find deep first love in 1980s Omaha. Eleanor and Park don't meet cute; they meet vexed on the school bus, trapped into sitting together by a dearth of seats and their low social status. Park, the only half-Korean fan of punk and New Wave at their high school, is by no means popular, but he benefits from his family's deep roots in their lower-middle-class neighborhood. Meanwhile, Eleanor's wildly curly red mane and plus-sized frame would make her stand out even if she weren't a new student, having just returned to her family after a year of couch-surfing following being thrown out by her odious drunkard of a stepfather, Richie. Although both teens want only to fade into the background, both stand out physically and sartorially, arming themselves with band T-shirts (Park) and menswear from thrift stores (Eleanor). Despite Eleanor's resolve not to grow attached to anything, and despite their shared hatred for cliches, they fall, by degrees, in love. Through Eleanor and Park's alternating voices, readers glimpse the swoon-inducing, often hilarious aspects of first love, as well as the contrast between Eleanor's survival of grim, abuse-plagued poverty and Park's own imperfect but loving family life. Funny, hopeful, foulmouthed, sexy and tear-jerking, this winning romance will captivate teen and adult readers alike. (Fiction. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

From Publisher's Weekly

Starred review from December 10, 2012
Half-Korean sophomore Park Sheridan is getting through high school by lying low, listening to the Smiths (it's 1986), reading Alan Moore's Watchmen comics, never raising his hand in class, and avoiding the kids he grew up with. Then new girl Eleanor gets on the bus. Tall, with bright red hair and a dress code all her own, she's an instant target. Too nice not to let her sit next to him, Park is alternately resentful and guilty for not being kinder to her. When he realizes she's reading his comics over his shoulder, a silent friendship is born. And slowly, tantalizingly, something more. Adult author Rowell (Attachments), making her YA debut, has a gift for showing what Eleanor and Park, who tell the story in alternating segments, like and admire about each other. Their love is believable and thrilling, but it isn't simple: Eleanor's family is broke, and her stepfather abuses her mother. When the situation turns dangerous, Rowell keeps things surprising, and the solutionâ€"imperfect but believableâ€"maintains the novel's delicate balance of light and dark. Ages 13—up. Agent: Christopher Schelling, Selectric Artists.