True Colors

A rare condition causes 12-year-old Mackenzie Werner’s emotions to radiate around her in a rainbow haze in this cerebral, lightly fantastical novel by Cooper (Friend or Fiction). After Mackenzie was treated as a pariah in kindergarten, her parents moved the family to Serenity, Minn., population 1000, where negativity is forbidden and choosing happiness is an edict. Mackenzie yearns to blend in, especially when a documentary crew arrives to chronicle Serenity’s “way of life,” but a growing friendship with the filmmaker’s free-thinking daughter, Rayna Scott, causes Mackenzie to question her place in Serenity and the world. When her vivid emotions erupt and her colorful aura spreads to other townsfolk, she and her parents endure new levels of scrutiny as Serenity’s facade of happiness fades away. Grounding a plot reminiscent of The Giver against a contemporary backdrop, Cooper depicts Mackenzie’s bright emotions and desire to conform via a first-person POV that resounds as vibrantly as the protagonist’s rainbow glow. Insights from the documentary footage and Serenity paraphernalia add nuanced layers to this tale about idealism gone awry. Mackenzie and her family are white; Rayna and other supporting characters cue as racially diverse. Ages 10–up. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (May)