YOU CAN'T PLEASE EVERYONE!

The earnest tale of a girl who just can’t say no.

Ellie is a people-pleaser—the thought of disappointing others petrifies her. When faced with the choice of cancelling her own plans or telling a friend she can’t do an activity, she’ll always opt in favor of the friend. Caring people in Ellie’s life begin to notice her self-sabotaging behavior. There’s Rosie, a new girl at school, who notices that Ellie’s people-pleasing is making her unhappy. There’s Ellie’s mom, who knows Ellie would rather paint than put her plans on pause for her blithely oblivious friend Sam. Only when Ellie has a talk with her parents does she own up to her problem and begin conveying her true feelings and preferences. Authorial advice prefaces the story, providing useful context, but some of it is delivered with too broad a brush. For example, unable to dole out much more than generalities, Flanagan Burns urges child readers to ditch toxic friendships and “find friends who lift you up, not bring you own. Find friends who like you just the way you are.” Would that it were so simple. The writing is straightforward and serviceable. Simple illustrations in earth colors depict Ellie as White, Rosie as Black, and other classmates as racially diverse.

A worthwhile, if sometimes heavy-handed, primer on setting boundaries, but the storytelling feels rote.