Ps I Miss You – WISE Score & Parent Review | Screenwise
Ps I Miss You
book2018
88%
WISE Score
A moving middle-grade story about a girl writing letters to her 'troubled' sister while discovering her own identity and questioning her family's strict faith.
Ps I Miss You
book
2018
88%
WISE Score
A moving middle-grade story about a girl writing letters to her 'troubled' sister while discovering her own identity and questioning her family's strict faith.
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Screenwise Verdict
Ps I Miss You is a standout for families who want books that don't shy away from real-world complexity. It’s a 'quiet' book—there are no magic wands or world-ending stakes—but for a kid navigating their own first crush or questioning the rules they grew up with, the stakes feel just as high.
It’s especially valuable for its portrayal of a girl trying to reconcile her LGBTQ+ identity with her religious upbringing. Author Jen Petro-Roy handles the 'taboo' elements (like the sister’s pregnancy) with exactly the right amount of information for a middle-grade audience: enough to understand the gravity, but not so much that it feels like it belongs on a YA shelf.
Age Fit
Perfect for the 10-13 crowd. It deals with 'older' themes like pregnancy and identity, but it keeps the perspective firmly grounded in a middle-schooler's emotional reality.
WISE Breakdown
Wholesome
85
The core of the book is a deep, aching bond between sisters. It models emotional honesty and the courage to ask hard questions about family and faith while maintaining a gentle, age-appropriate tone.
Imaginative
70
The epistolary format (writing letters that can't be sent) is a classic literary device that effectively puts the reader inside Evie's head, though it doesn't reinvent the wheel.
Safe
90
Very safe for middle-grade readers. While it deals with heavy topics like teen pregnancy and religious shaming, these are handled with sensitivity and are never graphic or gratuitous.
Enriching
95
Excellent for building empathy. It tackles the intersection of LGBTQ+ identity and religion in a way that is accessible for 10-year-olds without being preachy or overly simplistic.
Parent Info
✓
Why It Might Be Great
Authentic voice that captures the specific anxiety of being twelve and realizing your world isn't as simple as your parents said it was.
Nuanced LGBTQ+ representation that focuses on the internal discovery and the 'crush' phase rather than jumping into mature relationship territory.
The letter-writing format makes it an easy, intimate read for kids who might feel overwhelmed by dense blocks of traditional prose.
Respectful questioning of faith that allows kids to see it's okay to love their community while disagreeing with some of its rules.
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What to Watch For
The catalyst for the plot is the main character's older sister being sent away because she is pregnant; the topic is handled off-page and through a 12-year-old's perspective, but it's the central family 'secret.'
Features a fairly strict religious environment (Catholic) where the parents are portrayed as loving but very rigid, which might lead to some heavy conversations about why the sister was 'punished.'
There's a consistent sense of grief and longing as Evie misses her sister, which might be a bit of a downer for kids looking for a lighthearted read.
Conversation Starters
"Why do you think Evie’s parents felt they had to send Cilla away instead of helping her at home?"
"Evie starts to realize she has a crush on June. How does that change the way she thinks about what she’s been taught at school?"
"If you couldn't talk to someone you loved, would writing letters to them help you feel better, even if you couldn't mail them?"
"Is it possible to disagree with your parents or your church and still be a 'good kid'?"
