WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 55Review_CHILDREN’S
underground comics. Soon the pizza top-
pings include not only ice cream cones
and an entire turkey, but school supplies,
the White House, a particle accelerator, a
wheelbarrow full of penguins, and more.
A calamitous, voracious pizza black hole
results—“as black as burnt pizza crust,”
the protagonist notes, as two sets of eyes
peer out of the vortex—but a “pizza big
bang” (“BOOM!”) reboots the universe
and returns the duo back home, sort of.
It’s catnip for pizza’s many fans, and some-
thing more: a joyful tribute to a parent
and child who are two peas in a pod
within a wide universe of families and
pizzas. Ages 5–8. Author’s agent: Erica
Rand Silverman, Stimola Literary Studio.
Illustrator’s agent: Katherine Latshaw and
John Cusick, Folio Literary. (Apr.)
Fiction
Best Nerds Forever
James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein, illus.
by Charles Santoso. Little, Brown/Patterson,
$13.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-316-50024-1
Thirteen-year-old Finn McAllister is
riding his bike a few days before middle
school’s end when a speeding black van
forces him over a cliff to his death. But the
sharp rocks at the bottom aren’t the end
for Finn, who remains on Earth as a ghost,
offering wry commentary while viewing
his family and friends. Instead of moving
on to the afterlife, he stays to take care of
unfinished business, such as determining
who killed him. When he befriends fellow
ghost Isabella Rojas, a quiet girl who
vanished four months earlier, the two
decide to handle their unfinished business
together. As Finn dwells upon the “risk-
averse, danger-avoiding life” his cautious
insurance actuary father encouraged him
to lead, he realizes that he regrets missing
hijinks with his friends. With this chatty,
introspective ghost story, Patterson and
Grabenstein (Scaredy Cat) explore con-
cepts such as regret, being ruled by fear,
and embracing opportunity. However
somber the premise, the creators inject a
lively underlying current and a sense of
optimism as the new friends make the
most of their spectral status and face the
unknown future. Final art not seen by
PW. Ages 8–12. (May)
Finding Junie Kim
Ellen Oh. HarperCollins, $16.99 (368p)
ISBN 978-0-0629-8798-3
Oh (The Dragon Egg Princess) conveys
the legacy of bravery, tenderness, and for-
giveness alongside the fallout of intergener-
ational trauma in a complex novel that
touches on gender discrimination and
racism, mental health, and imperialism
and civil war. Following a series of racist
incidents at her largely white middle
school, including graffiti targeting Black,
Jewish, and Asian students, Korean
American student Junie Kim, 12, falls out
with her friend group and into a fatalistic
spiral, eventually receiving a diagnosis of
depression. As prejudicial bullying con-
tinues at school, an assignment leads Junie
to interview her beloved grandparents,
Doha and Jinjoo, about their experiences
during the Korean War, an experience that
gives her renewed resilience and courage.
Oh alternates Junie’s first-person tale of a
contemporary America replete with MAGA
hats and “fake news” with her grandparents’
stories of war-torn South Korea, injecting
experiences of painful realism through
wartime events, ethnic slurs, and a descrip-
tion of suicidal ideation. Junie’s healthy
and inclusive family dynamic contributes
warmth and hopefulness, and her grandpar-
ents’ backstories and personal integrity in
the face of hardship are thoughtfully drawn.
Ages 8–12. Agent: Marietta B. Zacker, Gallt
& Zacker Literary. (May)★ Healer of the Water Monster
Brian Young. Heartdrum, $16.99 (368p)
ISBN 978-0-06-299040-2
This excellently wrought middle grade
debut by Young (who is Diné/Navajo) cen-
ters 11-year-old Nathan Todacheenie, a
Diné boy who, seeking to escape a vacation
with his father and his father’s girlfriend,
ends up in a world of tradition and magic.
At book’s start, Nathan is being dropped
off with his shinálí, called Nali for short;
though there’s no running water or elec-
tricity, her mobile home is on his beloved
Dinetah/Diné homelands. Though Nathan
doesn’t look forward to a summer of chop-
ping wood and zero phone reception, he
does adore Nali, who has worked for years
to keep her allotment of land and her tradi-
tions. When Nathan wanders into the
desert in pursuit of the otherworldly
horned toad who’s filching corn seeds fromNathan’s school
experiment, he
ends up on a
quest to enter
the Third World
and save the
Water Monster,
a Holy Being
that has been
poisoned by
radiation, as
well as his uncle
Jet, who has returned from military service
in desperate need of a traditional ceremony
that he doesn’t want. Gentle, complex
characters and flawed, loving human rela-
tionships lend depth to Young’s worlds-
spanning novel. Ages 8–12. Agent: Dan
Mandel, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc. (May)Long Lost
Jacqueline West. Greenwillow, $16.99 (288p)
ISBN 978-0-06-269175-0
In a spooky middle grade love letter to
libraries and the mystery genre, West (Last
Things) crafts a spellbinding exploration of
sisterhood. Fiona Crane, 11, and her older
sister, Arden, a figure-skating phenom,
have just arrived in Lost Lake, Mass., where
the white family has moved to facilitate
Arden’s passion. Archaeology- and history-
loving Fiona resents the change—and the
attention the girls’ parents lavish on Arden.
Despite her resentment, though, she finds
the one place in town she feels comfortable:
its luxurious library, located in a converted
mansion that holds mysteries of its own.
Fiona quickly stumbles upon an old book
with a green cover and no library tag con-
taining an unfinished story about two sis-
ters of a bygone era. With the help of local
boy Charlie, Fiona investigates similarities
between the stories and local history, con-
tending with a secretive librarian and the
specter of Fiona’s tenuous relationship with
Arden. Alternating a contemporary third-
person narrative with the found book’s
parallel telling, West draws readers into a
supernaturally tinged dual story, simulta-
neously offering an authentic portrait of
sibling angst. Ages 8–12. Agent: Danielle
Chiotti, Upstart Crow Literary. (May)★ Too Bright to See
Kyle Lukoff. Dial, $16.99 (192p) ISBN 978-0-
5931-1115-4
In this gently paced debut novel by