How to Become a Planet by Nicole Melleby (review)

For Pluto Jean Timoney to enter eighth grade in the fall, she must reinvent herself over the summer. That, at least, is how she’s come to regard her struggle with anxiety and depression. If only she can tick off several self-imposed challenges—taking her meds, visiting a planetarium with her mom, and attending the birthday party of her best friend—she’ll be good to go. This is an uphill battle, though, made more difficult by her divorced parents’ turf battles, the wreckage she knows she’s made of former friendships, the burden of uncompleted classwork, and even the complication that a new and understanding friend brings into her life. The visceral details of the struggle to get out of bed, shower, and greet the day offer insight into the sheer weight of Pluto’s depression, and the frustrated efforts of family and friends to help, help, and keep helping are also compassionately portrayed. Melleby effectively employs planet Pluto’s redefined status, which has sometimes been critiqued as arbitrary, as a metaphor for the possibly arbitrary tasks Pluto Timoney sets for herself; only when she loosens up on her rigid self-definition, with the help of an empathetic tutor and a trusted therapist, does she begin to make real progress and know she will arrive at eighth grade on time.