Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
Maybe He Just Likes You
Barbara Dee · 2020
85/100
👍 Worth It
Barbara Dee handles a genuinely difficult topic — sexual harassment in middle school — with care, accuracy, and a resolution that empowers rather than lectures. Mila's journey from confusion to self-advocacy is honest and age-appropriate, and the book earns its starred reviews by doing something almost no middle-grade novel had done before. A strong pick for any tween reader, parent, or classroom library.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: Central topic is sexual harassment including unwanted touching and degrading comments; depicted truthfully but may be distressing for survivors. We still scored it 85; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety72
substance88
craft84
originality90
accuracy86
hype78
age-fit88
human-eye85
Penny’s verdict85
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