Eli Over Easy

by Phil Stamper

Overview

From the acclaimed author of Small Town Pride, Phil Stamper, comes a heartfelt coming-of-age middle grade novel about grief, love, loss, and finding your way forward in the vein of Kate Allen’s The Line Tender and Jules Machias’s Both Can Be True.

The last few months have been pretty tough for Eli. He moved to New York City and left his small town in Minnesota with his extended family and everyone he knows. He hasn’t made any new friends. And his mom died unexpectedly, shattering his whole world. He misses Mom more and more every day, but Dad refuses to talk about her, leaving Eli alone in his grief. 

Then Eli finds a stash of instructional cooking videos his mom made, revealing her dream of being a celebrity chef. With the help of the cute new neighbor boy, Mathias, Eli decides to follow his mother’s recipes using her videos. If he can re-create his mom's special dishes, then maybe a part of her can stay with him forever. But what happens when the videos run out?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063118850
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/03/2023
Sold by:	HARPERCOLLINS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	768,770
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Phil Stamper is the bestselling author of The Gravity of Us, As Far as You’ll Take Me, Golden Boys, Small Town Pride, and other queer books for kids and teens. He currently works in author development for a major book publisher in New York City, where he lives with his husband and their dog. Visit him at philstamper.com.

 

Editorial Reviews

09/04/2023

Thirteen-year-old Eli Adams lives alone with his father, who has become stridently protective ever since Eli’s mother, a test kitchen chef, died of Covid months ago. And now that they’ve moved away from family and friends in Minnesota to New York City, and Dad refuses to talk about Mom, Eli feels lonelier than ever. While using his mother’s computer to research project ideas for his virtual summer coding bootcamp, Eli stumbles upon her YouTube channel, where, he learns, she had been uploading instructional cooking videos. With the help of his cute tween neighbor Mat, who is spending the summer with his grandmother, Eli uses his mom’s videos to teach himself how to cook, hoping to feel closer to her. After a lot of failures, he slowly hones his skills, but his sudden interest in cooking worries his dad, who believes that Eli is becoming trapped in grief. Eli’s burgeoning self-expression—through both his cooking and his sweetly developing relationship with Mat—shines through in this tender, low-conflict drama in which Stamper (Small Town Pride) portrays myriad grieving processes and experiences with sensitivity and care. Eli reads as white. Ages 8–12. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

This inspiring story of grief and growth for the COVID generation broke my heart and then pieced it together one recipe at a time; Stamper doesn't shy away from the raw emotions of losing a loved one, and while Eli's journey is messy and complicated, his story is told with honesty and heart that leaves us healing right along with him. — Nicole Melleby, Author of WINNIE NASH IS NOT YOUR SUNSHINE

This hopeful yet realistic story of grief, love, and so many eggs follows Eli on the unpredictable path between loss and acceptance. From cracked shells and broken hearts to first crushes and feisty grandmas, this lovely book offers a lesson in how to land sunny-side up no matter what life dishes out. — Jules Machias, author of Fight + Flight

"A beautiful and heart wrenching examination of grief, growing up, and the joy of cooking!" — Claribel A. Ortega, New York Times bestselling author of Witchlings and Frizzy

"Eli Over Easy mixes the sweetness of a first crush with the bitterness of loss, and sprinkles in a colorful cast of loveable characters. Stamper has the perfect recipe for a heartwarming coming-of-age tale sure to leave readers with a taste for more." — Ali Standish, award-winning author of The Ethan I Was Before and Yonder

Stamper has written a gentle, warmhearted story with appealing characters and a clever premise. Bon appetit! — Booklist

Eli’s burgeoning self-expression—through both his cooking and his sweetly developing relationship with Mat—shines through in this tender, low-conflict drama in which Stamper (Small Town Pride) portrays myriad grieving processes and experiences with sensitivity and care.  — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

A beautiful and heart wrenching examination of grief, growing up, and the joy of cooking!”

New York Times bestselling author Claribel A. Ortega

In apprehensive tones, André Santana artfully conveys the concerns of tween Eli as he mourns the sudden loss of his mother, a professional chef, due to the pandemic. At the same time, he is adjusting to life in New York City after a move from Minnesota. When Eli stumbles upon an archive of cooking videos made by his mother, Santana taps into Eli's grief with a falling inflection and slight tremor. His neighbor and attractive friend, Mathias, encourages Eli in a calm, mellow voice to start trying out the recipes--if only to save Eli from one more half-frozen breakfast burrito. Buoyed by the high-pitched enthusiasm of his cousin, a rising YouTube star, Eli begins his healing journey. The accompanying pdf of recipes--Eli's wry commentary included--is icing on the cake. E.E. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2024 - AudioFile