Newbery Medal-winner Jerry Spinelli (Maniac Magee; The Warden's Daughter) delivers an affecting story about a shy, insecure boy and the dead girl who's supposed to be guiding him.
Every second Wednesday in June, the eighth-graders in Amber Springs don black shirts and "die"--each one representing "some kid from Pennsylvania" who had a "preventable" death from "drugs. Alcohol. DAT (driving and texting).... Recklessness," etc. While most kids use the day to goof off, attention-hating Robbie "Worm" Tarnauer is looking forward to being invisible. Then the unexpected happens: his dead teen's ghost appears. Becca, a 17-year-old car crash victim, follows Worm around for the day, convinced that she's returned to show Worm the life he's missing. But as the self-dubbed "spectral maiden" tries to fix Worm, more and more of her own story comes out, making it less clear who is supposed to be helping whom.
Becca and Worm are complete opposites but also perfect complements. While Becca says whatever pops in her head, Worm often sees his words "percolate up to his mind, into his mouth, where, more often than not, they stay." While Worm is a spectator to life, Becca is its centerpiece--loud, impulsive and like a "riptide." The pair, coupled with Spinelli's colorfully descriptive language ("She's got his head looped like a funnel cake") draw readers into a compelling story that takes place over the course of a day (time stamps indicate the passage of the hours). This fever dream of a story about self-acceptance and forgiveness is unforgettable. --Lana Barnes, freelance reviewer and proofreader