Trouble Next Door by Karen English (review)

Calvin, classmate of Richard (from Skateboard Party, BCCB 2/15) and Nikki and Deja (from Election Madness, BCCB 10/11, etc.), has two problems: he’s got to figure out what project to do for the science fair, and he’s just discovered that the big bully he fears, Harper Hall, has moved in next door. Calvin plans to simply avoid Harper, but his dad feels for the lonely kid living only with a short-tempered foster mother and wants to include him, and soon Calvin finds himself seeing Harper from a different, friendlier angle. The bully with a sad heart isn’t a new character, but English’s dead-on accurate take of kid viewpoints is right up there with Ann Cameron’s for realism and accessibility; the book is particularly deft at depicting conflicting impulses or levels, as when Calvin squirms believably at his father’s intervention though it’s clearly the right action to take. Freeman’s black and white spot art is cute without being cartoony, catching reality in the slouch of a kid over a gaming console or the glare of a girl about to get reported to the teacher. Readers following the Carver School students will appreciate another warm and approachable outing with the gang.