A Good Day for Climbing Trees

This humorous South African import offers a warm look at middle grade activism. Marnus, the 13-year-old narrator, is the forgotten, unremarkable brother sandwiched between two stars—the Adonis-like 15-year-old Donovan and the entrepreneurially gifted nine-year-old Adrian (who rents Donovan out to neighborhood girls for kissing lessons). “Marnus-in-the-middle,” Marnus laments. “Sometimes it felt like I was invisible.” However, when a “weird” girl named Leila comes to Marnus’s door with a petition to save a tree, he breaks character and follows her to the park to see it, then joins her up in the branches to protest and save the tree from municipal managers and bulldozers. A comic cast champions their cause, including a pink-haired town eccentric named Mrs. Merriman who brings food and drink; a gruff caretaker who allows Marnus and Leila to use the club’s restrooms; and Leila’s quiet mother. While it stretches belief that Marnus’s litigator mother allows him to stay in the tree, Jacobs authentically sketches the main characters’ deeper motivations—especially Leila’s reaction to her parents’ divorce. Ultimately, Jacobs delivers a kind and uplifting novel about two characters taking a stand. Ages 9–12. [em](May) [/em]