Thanks to Macmillan Books for the free advance copy of this book.

 - I love the concept of a YA memoir, especially when it's one as good as A FACE FOR PICASSO. Henley covers so much in this book, and not just her own personal experience: she also writes about ableism, beauty standards, and more in a larger sense in a way that young people might not have access to without books in the YA section like this.
- Henley is quite blunt in discussing not only the physical but also the emotional trauma of her surgeries and their aftermaths, and the toll it took on her and her sister to be attempting to recover bodily while being attacked mentally by their peers and also their own PTSD symptoms.
- This book also touches on ableism in education: how these girls were missing school for lifesaving surgeries and then got punished for being absent, how no one told them the school could provide at-home tutors for them until they were in HIGH SCHOOL, how people assumed they were less intelligent or less capable of athletic activity because of their looks.
- Henley is also one of the most empathetic people I've ever encountered. Each time she recounted a time someone was cruel to her because of her looks, she used her adult perspective (and clearly years in therapy) to point out that these people were hurting for various reasons too, and taking it out on her. I'm so glad to see this lesson embedded in a book for young people (not to mention the extended discussion of what Picasso was really like).