Serendipity by Gabbie Benda

Hahahahaha, I’m in this book and I don’t know if I like it.

Look, I know I do too much. The fact that I’m taking so long to recover from the flu rn has given me plenty of time to reflect on what I usually spend my days doing (a lot, tho it honestly doesn’t feel like it to me when I’m healthy and going full tilt.) In many ways, I currently feel very much like the title character of this book, as her usual good luck falters and she has to figure out how to cope with her overscheduled life.

Serendipity is a middle school star. She’s class president, captain of the basketball team, and has the leading role in the school play. Her grades are effortless, and she’s the kind of person who routinely wins radio station phone-in contests. She’s undoubtedly lucky.

When she has an adverse run-in with a fortune-telling machine at the carnival one evening, she tries not to think too much of it. But she wakes up the next morning with the very first bad hair day of her life. She gets a B+ on a test instead of her usual A. Her lines just aren’t coming to her as Lady MacBecky, her rival for student body reelection is making significant gains, and she hurts herself during basketball practice.

Her best friend Basil suggests that maybe she take a step back and reevaluate her bursting at the seams schedule. As all overachievers do, Serendipity immediately panics and doubles down on her efforts instead. Maybe she just needs a little shot of witchcraft to help fix her luck? What lengths will Serendipity go to in order to get her life back on track?

As an overachiever from way back, I could very much relate to everything Serendipity goes through here. We have these incessant voices in our heads telling us, “If I just try harder, I’ll be able to do more!” and other less positive things that tie our self-worth to our output. That, of course, is the kind of thinking that leads to breakdowns and crash outs even worse than Serendipity has to experience in order to figure out that her schedule is unsustainable, and that she’s pushing away her friends in the process of trying to keep up.

I’m so glad Gabbie Benda wrote this book, because productivity culture is a blight. Yes, it’s good to do fulfilling work and to have ambitions, but you don’t have to be the best or most productive at everything. I especially appreciated how Ms Benda points out that when we live in community, it’s okay to let others step up and take over when you’re wavering and they’re willing: everyone wins when that happens.

The art here is also lovely, mostly in bright pastels and showcasing a diversity of characters. This is a terrific book for all those people, of any age, who do too much but don’t see it. The world won’t fall apart if you slow down, and the people who matter won’t love you less.

Serendipity by Gabbie Benda was published yesterday February 10 2026 by Holiday House and is available from all good booksellers, including