Middle Grade Monday: Turtle Boy by M. Evan Wolkenstein

Image: Penguin Random House

Turtle Boy by M. Evan Wolkenstein. 293 p. Delacorte Press/ Random House Children's Books/ Penguin Random House, May 5, 2020. 978059312573.

Middle Grade Monday features Turtle Boy by M. Evan Wolkenstein. Twelve-year-old Will Levine's receding chin isn't the only thing causing him to retreat to his room. Sure, there's that jerk, Jake, who never misses an opportunity to grab his chin and call him "Turtle Boy." And his best friend, Shirah is spending more time with her volleyball team, leaving him with Max, his super-hyper friend who's super into parkour. His turtles need him. His room is filled with terrariums and each one has a turtle he found in the marsh behind his school and "re-homed," including one he knows for sure is endangered. 

Will is also missing his dad, who died eight years earlier. He went into the hospital for a simple hernia operation and never came out. Will has been avoiding hospitals ever since. Now, his mom wants him to see a surgeon for a possible operation on his chin, which is causing some medical and dental issues. No way! As if it couldn't get any worse, Rabbi Harris has given him his Bar Mitzvah community service project - he has to visit a sick, possibly dying boy in the very same hospital where his dad died! 

It's basically dislike-at-first-sight when the two boys meet; but Rabbi Harris, who, is absolutely the best rabbi in the world, by the way, won't change his assignment. So R.J. and Will are left to work it out.

In addition to the bullying, friendship drama and community service disaster, is the fact that his beloved marsh is being eyed for development. If it seems there's a lot packed into this novel, don't worry. It works. Will's first-person narration endears. Sure the "help a dying child" thing has been done and done and done to death in children's literature. For some reason, I set my cynicism aside and was delighted. Maybe it was Will's voice; perhaps it was Rabbi Harris' comforting presence; perhaps it was his mom's support and tough love. I really don't know. It just worked.

It has been a while since I read a book through freely flowing tears. Turtle Boy gutted me in the best possible way. What an impressive debut!  I cannot wait to get this into the hands of my students. Turtle Boy should have broad appeal. It releases in May. Don't miss it!