**Thank you to NetGalley, author Kellye Crocker, and  Albert Whitman & Company for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.**

Dad's Girlfriend and Other Anxieties tells the story of Ava, a young girl, who travels to Colorado with her dad to meet his new girlfriend and her daughter, Z. Ava struggles with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and faces many struggles throughout the book that led to her feeling out of control of the situation. 

I am happy to see more middle-grade books represent mental health in such real, raw ways. I think that the struggles Ava faces are those that many children face - including meeting new people, having changes within a family, and having their voices not be heard. I know many have mentioned this, as well, but the fact that Ava is mostly open about her mental health and about going to therapy is such a positive thing for young readers to be experiencing. 

**Some spoilers in this next section**

One thing I was a little…hesitant (I don’t know if that is the correct word to use here) about was the actions Ava took to stop her family from going on the camping trip in the mountains. As someone who struggles with anxiety, it was interesting to process how Ava reacted to this situation. Ava is about 10-11 years old I believe - it seems maybe a bit odd that she would be able to partially dismantle a car, call and cancel the resort registration, and get away with “revenge” plots to ruin the trip for everyone. Anxiety is so vastly complex and different for each individual, so this could be something that a 10-11-year-old might do, however, it did not feel the most realistic while reading through it. 

Overall, I can see this being a book that I might talk about with middle-grade readers in the future. Text that represents mental health, therapy, and blended families can be a lot to pack into about 200 pages, however, they are important topics and representations that need to be more prevalent in young people's literature.