New Kids and Underdogs

Ten-year-old Robyn Kellen is used to being new in school, having moved regularly for her biology professor single mother’s work. Heading into the fifth grade in San Luis Obispo, Calif.—a change that has the potential to become permanent—Robyn is determined to “minimize the worst of being a new kid.” In a notebook given to her by her father, she drafts a list of new-kid rules based on the principle of cause and effect: “By reading the signs and sending the right signals, couldn’t she make it easier? Couldn’t she gain some control over the matter?” The year starts well, with two girls seemingly trying to befriend her. Robyn’s failed attempt to enroll her Jack Russell terrier mixes in an agility training class brings her into close contact with Alejandra, Jonathan, and Nestor, but she worries that befriending them breaks her rules. With plenty of support, Robyn learns in her own time how her rules might be limiting her, making final realizations both hard-won and satisfying in this assured, dynamic-aware novel from Finnegan (Susie B. Won’t Back Down). Robyn presents as white; secondary characters read as racially diverse. Ages 8–12. (Oct.)