Planet Middle School (review)

Joylin isn't feeling much joy these days; puberty is knocking at her door, making her grumpily question her tomboy ways and casual wardrobe. Even her best friends are becoming strangers, as KeeLee starts flirting with boys and Jake keeps apologizing when he bumps into her on the basketball court. What's worse, her own body is betraying her, making her come over all goofy whenever Santiago, a guy she never noticed before, looks her way. In clean, accessible free verse that perfectly captures Joylin's cri de coeur against encroaching adolescence, Grimes conveys all of the humor and horror that comes with the changes of puberty, subtly deploying secondary characters as object lessons for Joylin. As Joylin bumbles her own way through trying to remake herself into the kind of girl who might get noticed by a guy like Santiago, her younger brother, Caden, begs her to teach him to play basketball so that their dad will be proud of him, even though Caden is as good at drawing as Joylin is at hoops. The lesson she teaches Caden—to be proud of what he can do rather than trying to force himself into a mold that doesn't fit—is the lesson she herself needs to learn, and readers will cringe, laugh, and most of all relate to her learning process as it is sensitively and sweetly depicted here. Mom and Dad, though definitely in the background, are especially well rendered as they try to ride with the changes in this compact title that has broad appeal and solid curricular possibilities.