Ellie and the Marriage List (One Extra Sparkle)

One Extra Sparkle navigates the confusing time when younger siblings, like Ellie, are trying to understand their older siblings, like Ben, finding romantic relationships. Ellie has Down syndrome which makes for a unique perspective that I haven’t seen in a main character before. I can’t judge how accurate the portrayal of Down Syndrome is in this book, but Ellie is high-functioning, and with the aid of the written word you can clearly understand her thoughts, motivations, and speech. The context of her thoughts and actions also adds information about Down Syndrome without that being the focus.
Ben is 15 yrs. Old now and a great big brother that Ellie worships. He is interested in Sara who moved into the neighborhood recently. Ellie wants Sara to like her but she also makes her feel prickly when she starts joining in on activities she likes to do with Ben. Then her friend, Ling, comes with a list of the steps to marriage and Ellie becomes distraught at the idea that Ben will marry and end up moving to Hawaii and leaving her behind forever. This mixed-up feeling and bad information from her BFF have Ellie acting in very mean ways to Sara which upsets her family. It takes most of the book for Ellie’s underlying fears to come up and be sorted out in better ways.
This was an unusual topic choice for an early Middle-Grade book. However, being a younger sibling myself, I understood Ellie’s jealousy about having to share an older sibling that you hero worship. Given its uniqueness, it may help other younger siblings start to navigate their teenage sibling's new romantic relationships better than Elie and I did.
I do think the title may keep some adults from choosing to stock this title in libraries, stores, or personal libraries. I had a gut reaction when I saw a Middle-Grade novel involving “Ellie and the Marriage List” and wondered how appropriate this would be since most Middle-Grade topics avoid romantic overtones. However, this book ended up being charming and age-appropriate to a very real family dynamic that happens with age-gap siblings. Ellie having Down syndrome made it even more innocent in its execution.
Overall, this was a sweet book that features an underrepresented group and a unique but real topic in sibling relationships making this a good read for upper elementary-age students.