Izzy Kline Has Butterflies

Fourth-grader Izzy Kline takes readers through a year of vulnerability, self-searching, and triumph, narrating in brief and incisive free-verse poems. Though Izzy’s two former best friends ignore her as the school year begins, Izzy’s confidence gradually builds, as does her friendship with independent-minded Quinn, who can be bossy, but everything she does “makes everything/ everyone else does look/ less interesting.” Izzy’s free-association poems give readers a direct line into her whirlwind worries and wonderings: working on a map project for school, she confides that after her father announced that he was moving out while he was helping her with a leaf project, it left her “afraid of projects,/ because of what someone might tell you right/ in the middle of one.” Izzy’s thawing relationship with her father is one of many heartwarming threads in Ain’s (the Starring Jules series) story; others include an unexpected revelation that cements her bond with Quinn, her push-and-pull rapport with her older brother, and the validation provided by her class’s preparation to perform Marlo Thomas’s “Free to Be... You and Me.” Ages 8–12. Agent: Jill Grinberg, Jill Grinberg Literary Management. (Mar.)