The Kids Are Gonna Ask

March 15, 2020
Seventeen-year-old fraternal twins start a podcast searching for their biological father, and it goes viral. Savannah McClair is a high schooler who has lots of opinions and no trouble standing up to her twin brother, Thomas, but she lets her best friend, Trigg, boss her around and tell her what to do. Thomas is in a similar situation with his twin sister and his best friend, Nico, who tears him down every chance he gets. The twins are being raised by their well-to-do grandmother, whom they call by her first name, Maggie, in Minneapolis. Their mother, Bess, found out she was pregnant just before her college graduation and moved home, where she and Maggie raised the kids until her untimely death when the twins were almost 13. When Savannah and Thomas decide they want to broadcast their search for their father via podcast, they team up with a high-octane producer with a laser focus on getting the show as much attention as possible. This is a slow-moving story told sequentially and from the points of view of Maggie, Thomas, Savannah, and Jack, a man living in Georgia who could be the children's father. The story unfolds in a variety of formats, utilizing third-person narrative, letters, texts, social media posts, and voicemail and podcast transcripts. Author Anthony is particularly adept at sharing the conflicting emotions of adolescence and the fear of not being good enough that can extend into adulthood, but there is little tension in the story to pull the reader along. Instead, significant attention is given to frequent fights between the twins as they struggle with who they are, who their mom was, and where they should draw the line between public and private. A dialogue-rich book that explores the emotional turmoil of adolescence.

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March 30, 2020
In Anthony’s brisk coming-of-age story (after Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners), a high school podcast project goes viral when the hosts search for their unknown father. Sophomores Thomas and Savannah McClaire have lived with their grandmother, Maggie, in Minneapolis, since the death of their mother, Bess, two years earlier. The twins launch a podcast called McClaire Dinner Salon, documenting conversations between Maggie and her acquaintances. For a year, the twins’ audience plateaus at 300 listeners, until an episode addresses the mystery of their biological father’s identity, which attracts interest from Guava Media and a sensational producer whose credits include It’s Only Murder. As the teens work with Guava, their audience grows and the show attracts national media attention. One of the show’s previous guests, a friend of Bess’s from college, questions the ethics of the show on a talk radio program (“They’re kids. Asking very personal questions about a very private matter”). As Anthony reveals in an early flash-forward, the twins become overwhelmed and lock themselves in Maggie’s house, with protestors and supporters crowding outside. Anthony’s story is full of surprises and thoughtful reflections on the expiration date for family secrets. Like a successfully twisty podcast, this delivers the goods.

April 1, 2020
Anthony (Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners, 2018) returns with a sparkling tale about fame and family. Twins Savannah and Thomas McClair live with their grandmother, Maggie, in Minneapolis. Raised by Maggie and their mother, Bess, who recently died in a terrible car accident, the twins never knew their father. Until her death, Bess kept the secret of their true parentage. Savannah, a budding podcast producer, secures backing from a popular media company to start The Kids are Gonna Ask, a serial program in which the twins seek the answers to the mysteries of their birth. But as the buzz for the podcast grows, questions of morality arise. Is it fair to expose a man's past to the whole world, even if he's never named? And if he does hear his children for the first time, will he identify himself? Though this is a long book featuring several points of view, readers will turn the pages quickly. Fans of Elizabeth Berg and J. Ryan Stradal will relish the novel's humor, spark, and verve.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)