A Little Bit of Spectacular

by Gin Phillips

An authentic coming-of-age story about finding magic in the every day—perfect for fans of Rebecca Stead, Joan Bauer, and Wendy Mass.

Olivia and her mom have just moved in with her grandmother, and Olivia has exactly zero friends at her new school.  But after a strange message on the bathroom wall of a café catches her eye, Olivia decides that Birmingham, Alabama, may be a little more interesting than it seems.  So begins a search for answers that takes her all over the city.  Luckily, her mission isn’t solitary for long, thanks to her newfound friendship with Amelia, a girl just odd enough to be intriguing.

What the girls discover isn’t the earth-shattering revelation they were hoping for, but it may be just as compelling.  After all, sometimes the journey really is more important than the destination.  Especially when it leads you back home.

Genres: Mystery, Middle Grade, Realistic Fiction

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2015

About the author

Gin Phillips has published seven novels, and her work has been sold in 29 countries. Her newest novel, RUBY FALLS, will be published by Atlantic Crime on March 3, 2026.

Gin’s debut novel, THE WELL AND THE MINE, won the 2009 Barnes & Noble Discover Award. Her novel, FIERCE KINGDOM, was named one of the Best Crime Novels of 2017 by the New York Times Book Review. It was also named one of the best books of the year by NPR, Publishers Weekly, Amazon, and Kirkus Reviews. Gin’s novels also have been named as selections for Indie Next, Book of the Month, and the Junior Library Guild.

Born in Montgomery, Al., Gin graduated from Birmingham-Southern College with a degree in political journalism. After time spent in Ireland, New York, and Washington, D.C., she currently lives with her family (including a wonderfully weird golden mountain doodle) in Birmingham, Al.

Reviews

[Stephanie Tournas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eleven-year old Olivia is out of sorts after moving in with her grandmother in Birmingham while her mother recuperates from cancer surgery. She misses her friends in Charleston, and it seems she can't talk with anyone in her new school. Her only pleasure is going to Trattoria Centrale after school to eat a scone and read the messages written on the walls of the bathroom stall. Then, she discovers intriguing graffiti in the rest room: "We are Plantagenet". When the same graffiti appears in rest rooms across, she know's it's a mystery that she must solve. A gem of a middle grade novel about friendship and coming to terms with the mortality of your parents.

Sadly, the cover is quite lame and does not appeal.

[Jen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Olivia has to move from North Carolina to Alabama when her Mom gets sick. She has to live with her grandmother and go to a new school where she doesn’t have many friends. Her main hobby is going to different snack shops after school to get a bite to eat. While she is waiting for her snack, she goes to the washroom and scopes out all of the writing on the bathroom stalls. One particular message catches her eye “We are Plantagenet. We are chosen.” She researches the term and even makes a friend, Olivia, who helps her investigate. They write messages back to see if someone will respond, all the while the lights keep going out in the community every night. The power company can’t explain the outages, and of course the girls believe the Plantagenet are causing this. When the girls meet Plantagenet, they can’t believe their eyes or the stories they will hear. This is a book about kids dealing with illnesses in the family, making friends, and using your imagination. It is a quick read, but the author put in a lot of unnecessary details to get to the moral of the story.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eleven-year-old Olivia and her mother have left their home in Charleston to live in Birmingham, AL with Olivia's grandmother. Olivia's mother is recovering from cancer surgery. While in Charleston, Olivia was the only family her mother had and therefore she doubly felt the weight of her mother's illness. She is lonely in Birmingham with a grandmother she hardly knows. She has trouble making friends at school. Olivia entertains herself by reading the graffiti in the bathroom stalls of her favorite coffee shop. When she finds a strange message there and also sees it on other bathroom walls across the area, she finds herself in the midst of a mystery to solve--and in need of a new friend to help her solve it.

[Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I've always been a total bookworm, but this book set me over the edge. I was done in a day...told you I'm a bookworm. I recommended it to my fried and she is currently at about page fifty. She started it about a week ago, but this is very impressive for her because she once took three months to read a one hundred- page novel, if you could call it that. She's enjoying it, so I did my job as book recommender. I continue in my field of book-recommending as I recommend this book to you, Goodreads member. A Little Bit of Spectacular will not disappoint you!

[Carla Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet tale about finding—or creating—beauty in the everyday.

[Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

it was the best book i read i love the authors creativity

[Hanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was cute and sweet!! saw this on the shelf at the library, grabbed it, and read it in an afternoon. it was a cute mystery/alien/friendship/childhood worry story and I really liked it :)

[taty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked that she found writings on the wall interesting

[Emma Metzger · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was pretty short and easy, nothing particularly amazing about it. Just what I would call a "busy book" just get the pages you have to get read for school. It was interesting to see what would happen next but I wasn't dying to. It's a great book if you just are wanting a good read. Not every book can be flawless right?

[Katie Cooley · Rating 4 out of 5]

After relocating to Alabama to live with her grandmother while her mother recovers from surgery, Olivia tries to come to terms with their new surroundings. When she discovers some interesting messages scribbled on walls in public bathrooms, she is determined to find the message's hidden meaning. On her journey for the truth she finds a friend and her place in this new town.

[Meg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize that this was a YA book (or maybe even a juvenile book) when I requested it but it was a quick, easy read with a sweet, but short, story. A mixture of a coming-of-age tale and Nancy Drew. Cute.

[Marta Álvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

No he terminado de engancharme porque la trama era demasiado simple para mi gusto. No obstante es un buen ejemplo de que un libro infantil/ middle grade puede ser entretenido para su público y a la vez transmitir un mensaje sencillo pero importante.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book about the writing on bathroom walls hardly sounds interesting, but it wasn't bad. Pretty far-fetched in the end, but I liked the characters and the bit of mystery involved. I would recommend it to preteen girls.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this short novel and it's message: You can let life's unexpectedness crush and overwhelm you or you can find the magic in things. The magic can be anywhere, you just have to look.

[Emily Rozmus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet story with a compelling storyline.

[Jennifer]

Nothing really against this book. I just thought it was YA because I got it from the Ya section of my library. But it's actually a MG novel and not the kind of tone I wanted to read. Oh well.

[Sabrina Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very easy reader, highly recommend for my students!!