The Next Great Paulie Fink by Ali Benjamin (review)

Plopped down in the middle of a small Vermont town after her single mother decides to move from New York, Caitlyn is unhappy to find there are only ten other people in her new seventh-grade class. The school is also annoyingly weird, with a science class that involves tending goats and a Good Day Bell that happy kids ring (much to Caitlyn's irritation) at the end of the day. Her fellow classmates are obsessed with some kid named Paulie Fink, a genius prankster who apparently no longer attends the school. Still, Caitlyn's options for company are severely limited here, so when the kids ask her to be a reality TV–style judge of their efforts to find a Paulie replacement among them, she reluctantly agrees. Benjamin strikes a nice balance of goofy, often physical comedy (a student-led goat yoga class provides several moments of hilarity) with introspection, as Caitlyn considers the friendships and identity she was forced to leave behind and the unfamiliar and sometimes bizarre social hierarchy she finds herself in now. For much of the book Caitlyn is rather unlikable, and in retrospect she's even been shockingly mean; readers will either find the book to be a bit too forgiving or appreciate her redemptive character arc from bully to pal. That's actually in line with one of the story's major themes, though, as it explores of our tendency to remember people only in one specific role and how they relate to our personal narrative. This could pair well with Libenson's Just Jaime, reviewed below, for a look at shifting middle-school identities and the strange chaos they bring. KQG