Melanie Dulaney's Reviews > Finally Heard

Lina, from Finally Seen, continues to battle the social hierarchy at Winfield Elementary and Kelly Yang uses this playing field to focus on the potential for harm social media and the Internet have on kids and their parents. Main characters still include Lina and her best friends Carla and Finn plus Jessica, the student who joined with her mom in getting Lina’s favorite book/author banned from the school library. Lina’s mom and sister are key players as is favorite teacher, Mrs Carter. The bath bomb business started by the women in the Gao family that seemed to be the answer to the never ending struggle to earn enough cash to pay the bills is floundering and Mom begins an Instagram account to post videos and boost sales. “Modern Mama” is born, sales take off, and Mrs Gao begins to lose herself in producing more and more content, checking her likes, and responding to the negative comments. Lina inherits mom’s old phone and is immediately sucked into the world of chat rooms and videos that flood her feed based on her searches for things related to her changing body which leads to increased feelings of body negativity and obsession with what everyone is or might be saying about her. Mrs. Carter and the school counselor host a Social Media Awareness parent/student evening, cyberbullying and online predators are revealed resulting in damaged relationships. Ultimately, Lina’s family begins to implement limits and changes to their Internet and social media usage and positive change occurs between all of the featured friends and families. Outstanding messages of Internet safety, effects of too much screen time with emphasis on the negative influence of social media, as well as wise lessons on handling conflict face to face rather than through text or chat rooms. Yang keeps her book free of profanity, sexual content and violence and characters represent a wide variety of family configurations, economic strata and ethnic backgrounds. Pair with Sydney Dunlap’s It Happened on Saturday and while more focused on gaming and much more light-hearted, Gordon Korman’s Slacker and Level 13.

Content note: Part of Lina’s body image negativity stems from her fears surrounding puberty and the accompanying breast development and the subject arises frequently. Buying her first bra is a significant event and, by the end of the book, she is viewing the natural changes in a more positive light.

Thanks for the eARC, NetGalley.