The Real Deal

September 5, 2022
When Gabe’s teacher announces that a new student, Reuben, will be joining the sixth grade class, she mentions that Reuben “doesn’t speak,” igniting curiosity and even scorn among the students. Despite the bad feeling it gives him, Gabe initially laughs along, before checking his gut feeling and beginning to connect with Reuben. Amid Reuben’s arrival—and the addition of Rae, a seventh grader sent to join the class until she makes an apology—Gabe works on persuading his protective mother to let him take a summer backpacking trip with best friend Oliver, who seems to be keeping something from Gabe. As a condition of the trip, Gabe’s mom asks him to join the school’s Nature Club, and the lessons Gabe learns in the club and from the classroom’s new students give him the courage to stand up for what he believes, and to be there for Oliver when he needs Gabe most. Alternating with brief interstitials from Reuben’s perspective, Stoddard (Bea Is for Blended) employs Gabe’s candid and introspective first-person observations, making for a warm narrative of school community and personal growth. Protagonists cue as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Stephen Barbara, InkWell Management.

September 1, 2022
Some friendships are easy, and some are more complex. Sixth graders Gabe and Oliver have been best friends since pre-K, when sporty Oliver inspired bookish Gabe to try the teeter-totter--and encouraged him to keep trying it until he got the hang of things. This became the basis of their philosophy of complementary friendship. It's a solid relationship but one that Gabe sometimes worries about as their interests diverge. However, they're still a natural choice to work together when their teacher gives the class a storytelling assignment that can take any format they wish. The duo embarks on creating a comic that chronicles the adventures of Gabiver, a fictional detective and crime fighter inspired by Dav Pilkey's Dog Man who is a composite of the two boys. Their assignment--and their friendship--is changed with the addition of new student Reuben, a boy who doesn't talk, and seventh grader Rae, a girl who refuses to atone to a teacher for voicing her opinion and must spend time with the younger class until she crafts an apology. The story does a lot of things well, including its subtle examination of masculinity and friendship, although it suffers slightly under some far-fetched plot points, excessively tidy resolutions, and easy summations of trauma. Readers looking for a breezy read will most likely be pleased, but those hoping to sink their teeth into something meatier may find it too saccharine. All main characters read White. Sweet but superficial. (Fiction. 8-12)

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