An outsider inspires 12 kids from a sleepy Louisiana town to see their inner strengths and share their best with each other in Erin Entrada Kelly's heartfelt and inspirational Those Kids from Fawn Creek.
Orchid Mason floats into humid and changeless Fawn Creek like a mysterious breeze, immediately changing the dynamic in the 12-person class led by Mr. Agosto ("who was born in Venezuela and was the only non-white face in almost every room"). Her worldliness is intriguing to the titular classmates whose families have lived in "Yawn Creek" for generations and known each other "since the dawn of man." Orchid quickly befriends longtime pals Greyson and Dorothy but drifts easily among the small town's 10 other seventh-graders without concern for existing hierarchies or social dynamics.
"Sometimes Orchid sound[s] like an adult trapped inside a twelve-year-old," but her peaceful demeanor puts most peers at ease. Like her namesake, Orchid blooms where she is planted. She "fill[s] the space around her with fanciful stories" and inspires her classmates to think of life beyond their small town. Her presence instigates in some--Greyson in particular--the ache to be somewhere else, to be someone else. "Those kids from Fawn Creek" may share the collective identity of a community, but Orchid's influence highlights their distinctive and evolving personalities in a way that surprises both the children and their lifelong companions. Snippy and self-assured Janie cannot cotton to the newcomer, though, and plots with an even crueler friend from the next town to expose Orchid's secrets.
Newbery Award-winner Kelly delivers another poignant and pitch-perfect middle-grade novel in which quiet truths and universal childhood experiences are laid bare with tremendous emotional resonance. Kelly (Hello, Universe; Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey) reprises some familiar roles (the underdog whose family cannot see his virtues; the bully driven to callousness, having been the victim of another's vitriol) but the characters here are fully realized and read as fresh and consummately sympathetic. A third-person narration with a familiar tone uses shifts in voice to convey subtleties of the children's personalities, while the book's demarcations of time--week by week until a climactic incident, then day by day--maintain the energetic pace. Keen-eyed readers may appreciate nods to other middle-grade novelists in science teacher Mrs. Ursu and Bildner Construction. Kelly's simplicity of language belies the complexity of emotional nuance and depth that she packs into this novel.
A powerful and thought-provoking story championing acceptance, and a bittersweet reminder to see the beauty in oneself as well as others. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf
Shelf Talker: A newcomer shifts dynamics for 12 seventh graders from a sleepy Louisiana town in this stirring and hopeful middle-grade tale of loneliness and reinvention from a Newbery-winning author.