When You're Brave Enough, by Rebecca Bendheim

Growing up, Lacey and Grace have always stuck together, but the thing about being friends with extroverted Grace is that it's hard to be noticed by anyone else from the shadows.  So, when Lacey and her family move away, Lacey takes advantage of the opportunity to try to figure herself out and shine on her own.  At her new school, she goes out for the school play and gets selected for the lead part.  She finds herself accepted into the popular clique.  Things are starting to look up.

However, there is a catch.  The school's unofficial tradition is that on the final night of the show that the two leads will kiss for real.  Lacey has never kissed anyone before and she isn't sure that she wants her first kiss to be so public in front of all her friends and family.  And she isn't sure she wants the kiss to be with someone she doesn't like in the right way.

Outside of the play, she is preparing for her Bat Mitzvah and struggling nearly as much with the speech she will give during the ceremony.  But in the end, she finds that her search for the right decision in the play and her search for the right things to say in front of her congregation are part of the same struggle:  finding the strength to make the right decision despite the difficulty.

A fairly chaste middle school story about making the decisions that are right for you.  Supported by her family, her faith, and ultimately her friends, Lacie's worries and the choices she makes will be relatable to other fourteen year-olds.  The story hits all of the right notes, albeit in awfully predictable ways (for example, by invoking Anne Frank).

However, I found the pacing and exposition very uneven and difficult to follow.  So many really important scenes (the climactic kissing scene or Lacey's D'var Torah, for example) are underplayed and even buried in the story.  And other themes (like Lacey and Grace's relationship) are revealed late and in strange ways.  I understand wanting to do something original, but the story was often difficult to followat key points.  This is usually where I feel another round of drafts and stronger editing would have helped.