It Happened on Saturday

‘It Happened on Saturday’ by Sydney Dunlap is the story of Julia, an eighth grader who feels distanced from her parents and best friend and tries to find something to make her happy in the midst of her feelings of neglect. When her sister gives her a makeover and Julia posts the photo, she feels good about the likes it gets, and then a boy, Tyler, contacts her. Even though she doesn’t know him, and she even knows to think better of texting with him, she gives in to temptation and starts doing so. Her seemingly mundane life then turns exciting as she continues texting with him and soon finds herself meeting up with him. Of course, she’s careful, only meeting with him at the mall and not going anywhere with him in his car once he tells her he’s 16 and can drive. But she also doesn’t tell her parents about him, and what she tells her friends is how great he is and how wonderful her dates have been going. When she lets her guard down one day, she finds out that Tyler isn’t who he said he is and he leaves her behind with another man, a trafficker.

Even though Julia escapes before she can be taken away from all she knows and sent to a life of who knows what horribleness might await her, she still finds herself locked in a prison of her thoughts, grappling with what she should have done, and what she has to do now. She wants to protect herself, to keep her secret from others. It isn’t long before she realizes that this might be harmful to her friends or other kids like her. Life is not all black and white. What happened to Julia isn’t an isolated incident. It can happen to anyone, and when her friends start wanting to imitate what she did so they can maybe meet a cute guy online as well, she struggles with what to do to protect them while still trying to maintain her secret.

This book sheds light on the terrors of what can happen to young children if they are not as careful as they need to be, and Julia herself was more careful than most would be, especially in the circumstances she endured leading up to her escape. The importance of understanding the themes and intricacies of this book is paramount to safety, security, and ensuring that this doesn’t happen to anyone again. The back of the book has questions, answers, and a discussion guide based on the characters and themes of the book that will have readers thinking long after they put down the novel.