In Case You Missed It by Sarah Darer Littman
Sammy Wallach is feeling the pressure of looming AP exams and wondering if Jamie Moss is going to ask her to Junior Prom. Things aren’t much better at home. The bank where her dad is CEO has been targeted by protesters and that’s creating tension for everyone. On top of all that, her best friend got tickets to see their favourite band, but Sammy’s parents have forbidden her from going.
Things quickly get far worse than Sammy ever could have expected when one of the protest groups hacks into the Wallach family’s private cloud and posts everything online—texts, emails, and, worst of all, Sammy’s diary. Not only are Sammy’s innermost thoughts exposed to the world, but she also becomes privy to email conversations between her parents that they never meant for anyone else to read, especially their children.
In Case You Missed It invites us to reflect on how we differentiate between our public and private personas. Sammy faces some hard truths in the days that follow. She reads things that her parents have written that force her to see them in a new, and at times unflattering, light. At the same time, Sammy’s best friends stop speaking to her because she wrote things about them that she never intended for them to see.
This is a fast-paced read about one of our nightmares coming true—not only having someone read our innermost thoughts but posting them online where the world has access to them. It would be a terrific addition to a middle or high school classroom library, but as always, you know your students best, and who needs what book at what time in their reading lives.