How to Take a Risk
Preorders available now!
Out February 9th, 2027 from Viking/Penguin Young Readers
“A glorious story about how a single summer can leave you wholly transformed.”
—Chanel Miller, Newbery Honor-Winning Author of Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All
The summer before seventh grade, adrenaline junkie Reagan is excited to be with her summer best friend Zander and cross every item off of their annual "Risk List," a list of dares to complete across their coastal Maine town. She’ll get a break from her family friends Madi and Olive, and their new obsession with crushes and boys, and be able to focus on rock-jumping, hill-skateboarding, and camping out in the cemetery.
But when Zander asks Reagan to be his girlfriend, everything changes. What Reagan hoped would be a fun-filled summer like any other quickly becomes the most complicated of her life—especially when she realizes she doesn't have a crush on Zander, but on her friend Olive instead.
How long can she pretend to be Zander’s girlfriend when she knows the truth of her feelings? And just when things can’t get any more tangled for Reagan, her mom tells her that she’s pregnant, with a new baby sister scheduled to arrive at the end of summer. Suddenly, buried feelings come to the surface, and Reagan turns to increasingly scary dares to avoid the emotions bubbling up inside.
But she can’t avoid these feelings forever. And maybe some changes are good. Maybe this summer is about discovering that the biggest risk of all is learning how to be herself.
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Praise
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“This book is special. Rebecca Bendheim writes with such heart, courage, and honesty. I was cheering for these characters from the first page, and they will stick with me long after the last.”
—Tae Keller, New York Times bestselling author of the Newbery Medal-winning How to Trap a Tiger
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“The process of growing up and figuring out who you are is many things: humorous, painful, bittersweet, poignant, and beautiful. This story is all of that and more. Reagan is dazzlingly alive, and her voice is so fully realized that it grabbed me from the very first page and didn’t let go. Bendheim is a talent to watch.”
—Kate O’Shaughnessy, Newbery Honor-winning author of The Wrong Way Home
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“Sparkling with tenderness and humor, How to Take a Risk is a beautiful story about self-discovery, friendship, and diving into life headfirst…even when you’re scared. This book has my whole heart.”
—USA Today Bestselling Author Ashley Herring Blake
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"The perfect combination of voicey, compelling, sometimes-angsty, always-funny, gut-wrenching and heart-filling, I loved every second I spent with Reagan and her Risk List and was so proud of her growth by the end. Bendheim reminds us that often the bravest thing you can do is be true to who you are."
—Ari Koontz, Author of Just Ask Elsie
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“As bold as a cliff jump, and as personally-drawn as a whispered secret, Bendheim’s How to Take a Risk is at once an exhilarating and encouraging portrait of becoming.”
—Kyle Casey Chu, author of The Queen Bees of Tybee County
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“Changing friendships, risky dares, first crushes . . . This book has it all. I’m scared of heights, but even I was ready to follow Reagan to the highest cliff and jump. Loved loved loved— this is Bendheim at her best.”
—Andrea Beatriz Arango, Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All