Alice Cary

Children's & YAPicture Book

Animal antics

Review by Alice Cary

To Fly (ages 6 months-3 years) by Lucia Scuderi is a jewel of a book with a gently humorous story but few words, making it an excellent choice for both very young children and beginning readers. A mother crow tries to teach her newly hatched chicks to fly, prompting all sorts of endearing expressions and action. Each time a bird flies, the page folds out and up to show the avian aviator's efforts. There's also one large fold-out page showing the entire family in flight.

Alice Cary reviews books from her home in Groton, Massachusetts.

To Fly (ages 6 months-3 years) by Lucia Scuderi is a jewel of a book with a gently humorous story but few words, making it an excellent choice for both very young children and beginning readers. A mother crow tries to teach her newly hatched chicks to fly, prompting all sorts of endearing expressions and […]
Children's & YA

Animal antics

Review by Alice Cary

David Carter, the creator of the Bugs in a Box books, has engineered a new Pop-Up Menagerie called Curious Critters with words by Alan Benjamin. His funky, fantastical critters will definitely tickle your funny bone and grab your child's attention. Starting the show are The Acrobaterpillars, who pile into a tall pyramid, with two more performers hanging from suspension strings, while several more perform jumps and flips. The Shine-o-saur is a flying prehistoric creature with shiny wings. The grand finale is the Sopranosaurus, a dinosaur in queenly garb who sings a few bars of comic opera when you press the precious stone on her necklace. She's bigger than the three tenors, the text slyly notes.

Alice Cary reviews books from her home in Groton, Massachusetts.

David Carter, the creator of the Bugs in a Box books, has engineered a new Pop-Up Menagerie called Curious Critters with words by Alan Benjamin. His funky, fantastical critters will definitely tickle your funny bone and grab your child's attention. Starting the show are The Acrobaterpillars, who pile into a tall pyramid, with two more […]
ParentingFamily & Relationships

School, sex and TV

Review by Alice Cary

A wonderful new series debuts with How Is My First Grader Doing in School?: What to Expect and How to Help and How Is My Second Grader Doing in School? Jennifer Richard Jacobson and Dorothy Raymer present a wealth of material to help you assess your child's abilities in math, reading, and writing. Also included are clearly written explanations of various skills, suggested activities, and reading lists. More books for older grades are forthcoming. Start your children with this series and you'll both deserve an A+!

Whenever parents get the inevitable 'Where do babies come from?' query, the answer is often a pregnant pause. Arm yourself with How to Talk to Your Child about Sex and you'll know just what to say. Linda and Richard Eyre, the authors of the best-selling Teaching Your Children Values, say age eight is an ideal time to have the big talk, and they even present dialogues to show exactly how the conversation might go. They also explain how to answer the question for younger children, as well as how deal with the topic with teens of all ages.

Also be sure to check out Joanne Cantor's Mommy, I'm Scared: How TV and Movies Frighten Children and What We Can Do to Protect Them, which discusses not only TV and movies, but the news as well, another frequent contributor to nightmares. Cantor explains why children are often enticed by frightening programs and what types of problems are caused by various shows. She explains exactly what is likely to scare children at different ages and how to address their fears.

Finally, I'll close with a thought from For the Love of Children, a collection of quotes and anecdotes related to children and parenting. Author Eva Shaw notes that someone once defined the joy of parenthood as 'What grown-ups feel when the kids are in bed.' Touche!

Alice Cary is a mother and a reviewer in Groton, Massachusetts.

A wonderful new series debuts with How Is My First Grader Doing in School?: What to Expect and How to Help and How Is My Second Grader Doing in School? Jennifer Richard Jacobson and Dorothy Raymer present a wealth of material to help you assess your child's abilities in math, reading, and writing. Also included […]
Children's & YA

A loving delight

Review by Alice Cary

If you're in the market for a Valentine's Day gift, you won't go wrong with A Book of Hugs. Truly a book for all ages, it will delight preschoolers as well as sentimental or romantic moms, dads, teens, even adult sweethearts. Author Dave Ross starts with a few dictionary definitions (hug, hugger, and huggable), then explains that "there are all kinds of hugs in the world," which he proceeds to briefly define and illustrate.

Everyone knows about bear hugs and daddy hugs, but did you know that "fish hugs are very cold and seldom returned"? (Ross adds a useful PS: "Never hug a shark.") And you won't be surprised to know that fraidy cat hugs, such as when a frightened child clings to his mother, make you feel safe.

Laura Rader's gentle illustrations of embracing animals add to the affection and humor. For instance, few would want to be confronted by Great Aunt Mary of the Great Aunt Mary Hug; Mary is a fashion plate of kitsch, ready to squeeze and plant bright lipstick on her nephew. And Rader's seven small illustrations of bunnies demonstrating "Mommy hugs" — captioned with "You can never hug a Mommy too much" — would make a lovely poster.

Just when the going threatens to be too sweet, Ross and Rader throw in a little zinger, such as "Never hand-hug [shake hands] with dirty hands unless you both have dirty hands." One might never know there are so many kinds of hugs; from ice-cube hugs to lamppost hugs and report card hugs, they're all deftly explained. This most affectionate of volumes ends with a handful of "Facts &and Hints About Hugging," such as "A snuggle is a longish hug" and, wise words for wintry February, "Never hug tomorrow when you could hug today." Pair this book up with a box of chocolates, and share with the one you hug the most.

If you're in the market for a Valentine's Day gift, you won't go wrong with A Book of Hugs. Truly a book for all ages, it will delight preschoolers as well as sentimental or romantic moms, dads, teens, even adult sweethearts. Author Dave Ross starts with a few dictionary definitions (hug, hugger, and huggable), then […]
NonfictionNatureHumor

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

Review by Alice Cary

There’s no denying that Nick Offerman is one of America’s more intriguing celebrities. The man who made Ron Swanson famous in “Parks and Recreation” is also a touring comedian, saxophonist, professional woodworker and author of books like Paddle Your Own Canoe and Good Clean Fun. His latest is Where the Deer and the Antelope Play, which Offerman has subtitled in his frequently reflective, self-deprecating style: The Pastoral Observations of One Ignorant American Who Loves to Walk Outside. And boy does he.

Offerman divides his observations among three very different adventures, all devoted to exploring his relationship with America’s landscapes and past. He’s an entertaining raconteur and prone to digressions (Sirius Radio commercials that annoy him, for example, or his irritation with people who don’t make eye contact as he jogs past). The result is an undeniable immediacy, as though readers are spending the day hiking right beside him.

Offerman’s first quest is a culture lover’s dream: He spent a week in 2019 hiking in Glacier National Park with his “bromance partners,” author George Saunders and Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. The pals have great discussions about nature, America’s deplorable treatment of Indigenous and Black people, and the writers Wendell Berry and Aldo Leopold, two of Offerman’s heroes. There are humorous missteps as well, bringing to mind Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods, although Offerman’s descriptions of the glorious trails will leave readers ready to make a beeline to Glacier.

Nick Offerman narrates the audiobook for ‘Where the Deer and the Antelope Play.’ Read our review.

The second section examines farming and land use, framed by repeated visits to Offerman’s friend James Rebanks, an English sheep farmer in Cumbria, England, and author of the ecological books The Shepherd’s Life and Pastoral Song. Rebanks embraces a robust, self-sufficient agrarian lifestyle that Midwestern-born Offerman admires and is thrilled to jump into. As always, his enthusiasm is contagious. 

Finally, Offerman and his wife, actress Megan Mullally (whom he clearly worships), set off in the fall of 2020 in their newly acquired Airstream trailer on a COVID-19 road trip to explore places like Sedona, Arizona, and the banks of the Rio Grande. It’s fun reading about these two actors on the road, facing everyday issues and sometimes-humorous misfortunes. Offerman’s frequent solo hikes during this trip offer him a chance to ramble (and rant) on a variety of subjects, many of them political.

Laced with humor, intellect and fierce passion, Where the Deer and the Antelope Play is an entertaining getaway to a variety of unexpected American vistas.

Readers of Nick Offerman’s latest work of comedic, ecological greatness will feel as though they’re spending the day hiking right beside him.
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

The Beatryce Prophecy

Review by Alice Cary

In a return to the fantasy genre of her Newbery Medal-winning The Tale of Despereaux, author Kate DiCamillo spins the tale of a young girl named Beatryce, who is discovered in a monastery barn in the company of an unlikely source of comfort: a frighteningly ornery goat named Answelica.

Feverish and crying, Beatryce is found by a kindhearted monk named Brother Edik, who has foretold that a child “will unseat a king.” Because the prophecy specifies that the child will be a girl, the message “has long been ignored.” So begins the marvelous story of Beatryce, Answelica, Brother Edik and Jack Dory, a lively and illiterate orphan. Brother Edik learns that Beatryce’s mother taught her to read and write, a rarity at a time when even boys aren’t often taught such skills. Meanwhile, the king and his henchmen are trying to track down Beatryce. The story quickly becomes a suspenseful, fast-moving tale of female empowerment and an ode to the written word and the power of love, all told in DiCamillo’s signature heartfelt style.

DiCamillo is often at her best when writing about animals, and Answelica is an unforgettable wonder as memorable as Winn-Dixie the dog and Ulysses the squirrel. In the beautifully spare prose that has become one of her hallmarks, DiCamillo poses big questions, such as “What does it mean to be brave?” and invites readers to discover their own answers. The Beatryce Prophecy is full of dark forces, but hope and love prevail, and Beatryce comes to understand that the world is “filled with marvel upon marvel, too many marvels to ever count.”

Two-time Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall brings DiCamillo’s ragtag band of characters to life in joyful, energetic black-and-white illustrations. She establishes the powerful bond between Beatryce and Answelica from the start in a radiant mangerlike scene that wouldn’t be out of place on a holiday greeting card. The book’s medieval atmosphere is underscored by a series of illuminated letters that begin each chapter, and additional decorative flourishes throughout remind readers that this is indeed a special tale with a distinctive setting.

The Beatryce Prophecy is certain to be cherished. “What does, then, change the world?” DiCamillo’s omniscient narrator asks. The answer is as masterful as DiCamillo and Blackall’s creation: “Love, and also stories.”

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Discover the story behind Kate DiCamillo and Sophie Blackall’s first collaboration.

In a return to the fantasy genre of her Newbery Medal-winning The Tale of Despereaux, author Kate DiCamillo spins the tale of a young girl named Beatryce, who is discovered in a monastery barn in the company of an unlikely source of comfort: a frighteningly ornery goat named Answelica.

Children's & YAPicture Book

From the Tops of the Trees

Review by Alice Cary

With realism and a strong thread of empowerment, author Kao Kalia Yang shares a story based on events she experienced as a child living at Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in From the Tops of the Trees.

Yang captures the rhythms of camp life from the start. Her family sits in the shade of a large tree that provides “a great umbrella of cool.” She and her cousins play while the adults sew and discuss the war that forced them to cross a treacherous river to reach safety. “They are scared to return to the old country. They are scared to go to a new country,” Kalia reflects.

Yang hints delicately at the difficulties of camp life in a way that’s well suited for young readers. After she hears the adults talking about war, Kalia’s father reassures her that she’s safe. “Your hands and your feet will travel far to find peace,” he tells her. When she wonders why she must live behind a gate and whether “all of the world [is] a refugee camp,” he puts her on his back and climbs a tree to give her a glimpse of the wide world that awaits her.

Illustrator Rachel Wada uses linework to direct the reader’s attention, bringing some elements into sharp focus and allowing others to recede into the background. While many of the book’s scenes are full of joy, Wada’s earth-tone palette conveys the limitations of the camp’s environment, which is devoid of the lively colors readers are used to seeing on the pages of many picture books.

The spreads in which Kalia and her father climb the tree and gaze far out past the borders of the camp to see mountains in the distance “at the place where the sky meets the earth” are wonderful. Readers will feel as though they’re climbing alongside father and daughter and sharing their awe-inspiring view of the vast freedoms the world has to offer.

The author’s note makes Yang’s powerful story even more impactful. She includes a photograph taken by her mother that shows her in her father’s arms among the treetops. She also describes the lives she and her family went on to lead beyond the confines of the camp’s walls. Rooted in one family’s specific experience, From the Tops of the Trees offers an inspiring and universal vision of hope.

With realism and a strong thread of empowerment, author Kao Kalia Yang shares a story based on events she experienced as a child living at Thailand’s Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in From the Tops of the Trees.

FictionThrillerSpeculative Fiction

The Guide

Review by Alice Cary

Peter Heller takes readers on another thrilling wilderness adventure in The Guide, set at a luxurious fly-fishing compound near Crested Butte, Colorado. Protagonist Jack, first introduced in Heller’s Deliverance-like novel, The River, is still recovering from the tragedy that unfolded before his eyes during a canoe trip three years ago. He has also never recovered from witnessing his mother’s violent death when he was a boy, another tragedy for which he feels responsible. 

A virus known as Covid Redux threatens the world, but Jack hopes to lose himself in the rhythms of a pristine Rocky Mountain river as a fishing guide. “It’d be nice to have one summer of peace,” he muses. Fishing, in fact, is Jack’s therapy for his trauma and PTSD: “He had learned that it was much less a distraction than a form of connection: of connecting to the best part of himself, and to a discipline that demanded he stay open to every sense, to the nuances of the season and to the instrument of his own body, his own agility or fatigue.”

Jack is assigned to guide the perfect client, a fishing expert named Alison K who also happens to be kind, beautiful and a world-famous singer. Romance ensues, and things could hardly be better for Jack—except for strange events that build from a slow drip into a heavy cascade. There are security cameras on bridges and a nearby closely guarded fortress. Jack’s boss barks gruff, odd orders at him. Jack hears shots fired and strange screams, and finds a mysterious boot buried in the dirt that later disappears.

Heller is an expert at building suspense, and he’s a first-rate nature writer, lending authenticity to the wealth of wilderness details he provides. (He has traveled the world as an expedition kayaker.) He also uses a notable layout technique—adding space between each paragraph—that makes readers turn his thrilling pages even faster. One warning, however: Heller’s novels, especially The River, are not for the faint of heart. Still, The Guide is a glorious getaway in every sense, a wild wilderness trip as well as a suspenseful journey to solve a chilling mystery. 

The Guide is a glorious getaway in every sense—a wild wilderness trip as well as a suspenseful journey to solve a chilling mystery.
NonfictionEssaysAnimals

On Animals

Review by Alice Cary

“Well, for heaven’s sake, Susie,” Susan Orlean’s mother once told her. “You and your animals.”

Orlean has garnered well-earned acclaim writing about a slew of unlikely subjects, including orchid lovers, libraries, Saturday nights and more. However, she writes, “somehow or other, in whatever kind of life I happened to be leading, animals have always been my style. They have been a part of my life even when I didn’t have any animals, and when I did have them, they always seemed to elbow their way onto center stage.”

Regardless of whether you’re an animal lover, On Animals is a fabulously fun collection of essays, most of which first appeared in The New Yorker, where Orlean is a staff writer. “Lady and the Tiger,” for instance, tells the story of Joan Byron-Marasek, who collected tigers on her Jackson, New Jersey, property—well before Netflix’s “Tiger King.” Tiger hoarding, it seems, is a thing, and Byron-Marasek had lost track of exactly how many she owned when a Bengal tiger weighing more than 400 pounds was seen walking through the nearby suburbs.

Orlean is such a virtuoso of unexpected joys and delights that she can make even the story of a lost dog read like a thriller, as she does with the unlikely dognapping tale of a border collie in Atlanta. When writing about a champion boxer named Biff in “Show Dog,” her trademark humor shines through right from the start: “If I were a bitch, I’d be in love with Biff Truesdale. Biff is perfect. He’s friendly, good-looking, rich, famous, and in excellent physical condition. He almost never drools.”

In “Lion Whisperer,” Orlean profiles South African Kevin Richardson, who bonds with lions as cubs, cuddling and cultivating relationships through their adulthood, at which point they seem to accept him “on some special terms, as if he were an odd, furless, human-shaped member of their pride.” The essay blossoms into an especially intriguing tale with serious ethical concerns, which seasoned journalist Orlean duly explores. Her style seems meandering at times, but each essay always returns to its glorious point, even when following an aside about, in this case, a man who befriended a housefly named Freddie.

Whether she’s encountering a donkey laden with four televisions in Morocco, or extolling the global appeal of pandas, Orlean’s high-octane enthusiasm never wanes. After all, this is a woman who admits, “One day, I went to CVS to buy shampoo and came home with four guinea fowl thanks to a ‘For Sale’ sign I passed as I was driving home.” Likewise, Orlean’s readers will find themselves completely diverted by On Animals’ irresistible menagerie.

Susan Orlean is such a virtuoso of unexpected joys and delights that she can make even the story of a lost dog read like a thriller.
NonfictionAnimals

Fuzz

Review by Alice Cary

Animals do the darndest things—just ask bestselling author Mary Roach. After writing about the science behind human cadavers (Stiff), space travel (Packing for Mars) and life as a soldier (Grunt), she turns her attention to criminals in the wild in Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law. 

This book is such a rich stew of anecdotes and lore that it’s best savored slowly, bit by bit. Roach doles out surprising true tales from her around-the-world survey of human-wildlife relations, such as the story of a woman who returned home to find a leopard in her bed watching TV, or one about bear bandits in Pitkin County, Colorado, who tend to prefer premium brands of ice cream like Häagen-Dazs over brands like Western Family, which they apparently won’t touch. Her exploits are accompanied by numerous, sometimes lengthy footnotes, such as a particularly intriguing one about the scientific difficulties of studying monkey ejaculate.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Mary Roach shares some highlights from her worldwide travels to collect stories of fuzzy fugitives.

Roach also tackles deeply serious topics in Fuzz, such as the death and destruction caused by certain wandering elephants, or bears whose DNA needs to be traced in order to track down one who killed a person. But no matter the situation, Roach approaches it with contagious enthusiasm, gifting readers with sentences like this one about a tourist lodge in India: “I love this kind of place, love the surreal decay of it, love the clerk who does not know where breakfast is served or even if breakfast is served, love everything, really, except the rat turds on my balcony.” 

As Roach marvels at this wild world, she brings home the fact that, as one expert put it, “When it comes to wildlife issues, seems like we’ve created a lot of our own problems.” Roach is never one to proselytize, however, jokingly calling herself “Little Miss Coexistence” as she challenges herself not to set a trap for that roof rat pattering on her deck. Nonetheless, Fuzz will open readers’ eyes to a myriad of animal rights issues, and possibly change their attitudes about how to approach them. When it comes to handling pesky rodents and birds, for instance, Roach concludes, “Perhaps the model should be shoplifting. Supermarkets and chain stores don’t poison shoplifters; they come up with better ways to outsmart them.”

Bestselling author Mary Roach’s enthusiasm is contagious as she doles out surprising true tales from her around-the-world survey of human-wildlife relations.
Children's & YAPicture Book

Einstein

Review by Alice Cary

Time is one of life’s biggest mysteries—and one of its greatest challenges. Author-illustrator Torben Kuhlmann explores the concept of time in another wildly imaginative mouse adventure, Einstein: The Fantastic Journey of a Mouse Through Space and Time.

Kuhlmann’s earlier books have explored flight (Lindbergh), space travel (Armstrong) and the ocean (Edison). All are lengthy picture books (this one has 128 pages), which allows plenty of room for his yarns to unfold. Their large trim size showcases a marvelous array of Kuhlmann’s finely detailed illustrations, ranging from luminous full-page spreads to comical spot illustrations that chronicle their heroes’ exploits.

In Einstein, said hero is an inquisitive, unnamed mouse who has been eagerly anticipating “the biggest cheese fair the world has ever seen,” only to discover that he has missed the fair by one day. His crushing disappointment makes him wonder, “How could one turn time backward?” and prompts his determined quest to do so. After physically trying to stop a variety of clocks and then consulting a fellow mouse in a clockmaker’s workshop, he eventually ends up in the patent office where Albert Einstein once worked. He studies Einstein’s theories and builds a time machine that transports him back to 1905, where he meets the legendary scientist.

Einstein is perfectly paced and full of suspense (Beware a menacing cat named Chronos!), and Kuhlmann’s humor shines in both text and illustrations. Early on, for instance, the narrator wryly points out that “The term ‘pocket watch’ wasn’t quite right from a mouse’s perspective.” Later, after one of Einstein’s books hits him on the head, the mouse ties an ice cube on top of his throbbing noggin. Scrumptious details like these fill every page; in fact, on that same spread, observant readers will see that the mouse has built a ladder with matchsticks for rungs to reach the top of his chalkboard.

Kuhlmann’s sepia-tone illustrations are so glorious because of the keen attention he pays to how things might look from a mouse’s perspective. His unique ability to combine fun, facts, science and biography makes Einstein a real triumph.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Einstein author-illustrator Torben Kuhlmann reveals what he has in common with his mousy heroes.

Author-illustrator Torben Kuhlmann explores the concept of time in another wildly imaginative mouse adventure, Einstein: The Fantastic Journey of a Mouse Through Space and Time.

NonfictionMemoir

Below the Edge of Darkness

Review by Alice Cary

Marine scientist Edith Widder has spent a lifetime studying bioluminescence, often alone in a small submersible deep in the ocean. On some of these excursions, she felt like a “tea bag on a string,” although during descents and ascents, the experience was more akin to being “inside a martini shaker.” During one dive, seawater began leaking into her vehicle, but thankfully, she reached the surface safely. As I began reading Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea, my initial thought was, “Boy, I would never do that.”

However, Widder’s passion is so contagious that by the end of the book, I was yearning to explore these deep, dark waters with her. (Dr. Widder, I’m available!) The wonders she has witnessed are completely compelling. After her initial dive, she expressed her sense of awe by blurting out, “It’s like the Fourth of July down there!” Recalling that formative experience, she adds, “It was a mixture of the most brilliant blues ever to grace an artist’s palette—azure, cobalt, cerulean, lapis, neon—supernatural hues, emitting rather than refracting light.”

Widder’s pioneering career got off to a rocky start. During her freshman year at Tufts University, she was hospitalized for months after suffering horrific complications from a spinal fusion needed to heal her broken back. She nearly died and even experienced temporary blindness, but ever since, she’s spent her life looking—investigating “the visual ecology of the largest living space on Earth.”

Widder notes that as a scientist, she was trained never to write in the first person, which means that penning a memoir did not come naturally. However, she’s a clear, informative writer with exciting adventures to share, including an intriguing encounter with Fidel Castro while exploring ocean waters near Cuba and developing a special camera that led to the first video documentation of the elusive giant squid, earning her the nickname “the Squid Whisperer.” Her enthusiasm is matched by her sense of humor, which is frequently on full display in footnotes. As founder of the Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA), Widder also conveys the vital importance of preserving our ocean habitats.

With Widder as their guide, readers of Below the Edge of Darkness will become staunch champions of the spectacular bioluminescent world that thrives in the ocean’s depths. It’s a display they’ll long to see, and an education they’ll never forget.

Readers of Below the Edge of Darkness will become staunch champions of our spectacular bioluminescent ocean. It’s an education they’ll never forget.
Children's & YAMiddle Grade

Dead Wednesday

Review by Alice Cary

Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli has created another middle grade masterpiece with Dead Wednesday, a riveting tale about the awkward transition between middle school and high school and finding the confidence to be yourself along the way. It’s a serious story of life, death and mortality that speaks to tweens in an authentic and frequently funny voice.

As he did in his Newbery Honor novel, Wringer, which depicted a town’s ritualistic requirement that 10-year-old boys wring the necks of wounded pigeons shot during an annual festival, Spinelli places another seemingly ghastly tradition at the center of Dead Wednesday. In this case, 14-year-old Robbie Tarnauer, known as Worm, is thrilled to finally be participating in “Dead Wednesday,” a day in which eighth graders wear black T-shirts and take on the identities of the town’s teenagers who have recently died. Adults spend the day ignoring them, treating them as though they’re dead and therefore invisible. 

It’s intended, of course, to be a solemn affair that warns rising high school students against dangerous, reckless behavior and its deadly consequences. For the kids, however, Dead Wednesday is a day of strange freedom and pranks. 

Worm receives the identity of 17-year-old Becca Finch, who suddenly, mysteriously appears in her pajamas on his desk at school. She can interact with him but is invisible to others. “Worm,” she informs him, “we have to work together on this. I don’t know what’s going on any more than you do.” Worm and Becca get to know each other and eventually enjoy each other’s company. In a particularly moving passage, Becca explains the events leading up to her death and addresses the aftermath.

Spinelli takes an odd situation and makes it odder, but in his talented hands, the unbelievable becomes not only believable but also unputdownable. Worm is a shy, thoughtful and self-conscious protagonist whose quips will immediately draw readers in. He usually wears a watch, “a kind of compass that positions him in time and space,” but as he interacts with Becca, it becomes clear that all bets are off. Dead Wednesday is about how we choose to spend what time we have and how quickly that time can be lost. “You taught me more in one afternoon than I learned in my whole life,” Worm tells Becca. These are unforgettable characters, and Dead Wednesday is another award-worthy book from an author cementing his legacy. 

Newbery Medalist Jerry Spinelli has created another middle grade masterpiece with Dead Wednesday, a riveting tale about the awkward transition between middle school and high school and finding the confidence to be yourself along the way.

Sign Up

Stay on top of new releases: Sign up for our newsletter to receive reading recommendations in your favorite genres.

Sign up now

Trending Features

All Features