Every Day

In 2018, Every Day was adapted into a movie starring Angourie Rice and Justice Jesse Smith. You can view the movie’s trailer here, and you can read author David Levithan’s discussion of the film in an interview with Nylon here.

Upon its release, the movie was met with mixed reviews from critics. The Times called it a “eat-your-veg personal development class” that “that flutters and then fails,” while The Guardian called it a “captivating, thoughtful fantasy.” Read through the two reviews and ask yourself if the critiques and the praise both seem warranted – and, also, if one seems more warranted than the other. Do the issues raised in the criticisms or praise of the movie hold true for the book, in your opinion?

Teaching Suggestion: In “The Trouble with Making Books We Love into Movies,” journalist Jen Doll writes for The Atlantic about the struggles involved in transforming books into movies, especially when the book in question is a beloved classic or forms part a popular franchise. As the class discussion unfolds, it may be beneficial to anchor the conversation by leading students back to the book’s primary themes – especially that of The Fluidity of Identity, which was the focus of The Times’ review – and ask if they think the movie successfully executed the book’s core themes, as well as their speculation about which of the themes might be especially tough to portray in a film.