Anti-bullying is the new black. Of course, the reason why nothing is REALLY ever the new black is because everything that's supposed to replace black is just the flavor of the month, and everybody with a clue knows this. And being against bullying is the flavor of the month. (Please. Is anyone FOR bullying?) Most of the portrayals of bullying we get are reductive, and the solutions we're offered are preachy and/or non-real-world, and the disconnect between language and action is huge. Most ADULTS, let alone kids, don't see the gulf between the way they talk about bullying while simultaneously acting (subtly or not-subtly) like homophobic, fat-phobic, difference-phobic, inclusion-phobic, classist, racist, privileged, we (I, my kid, etc)-are-brilliant-and-special-and-everyone-else-is-less-brilliant-and-less-special douchenozzles. Look, I'm so irked my syntax is going.

Anyway, I loved this book for a zillion reasons, but the primary one is this should be the book EVERY MIDDLE SCHOOL KID reads about bullying. It makes the importance of allies and bystanders really clear -- simply going along with the popular crowd, when they're being mean or smirky to someone they consider less-than, makes you part of the problem. The book makes it clear how hard it is to do the right thing. And it's a BOOK, not a sermon. This is a great story. (Two-sentence summary: Kid with horrid facial deformities starts going to school for the first time after years of being home schooled. And he starts in MIDDLE SCHOOL.) I liked the fact that different sections had different narrators. And that the writing is utterly un-showy. (I've been reading a lot of lyrical stuff lately and it's nice to read something so direct.) And that it's a very quick, fluid read -- I think MOST kids will really like it, not just book-loving kids. It's moving, and it's not pedantic, and there's humor (and my GOD there is a lot of Star Wars stuff). Yay. Adults who enjoy kidlit should read this as a way to talk to their kids about standing up to their friends when their friends are acting dicky. (And the portrayal of a popular, powerful ADULT mom whose helicopter-y, bad-behavior-excusing conduct lets her kid continue to be a bully SHOULD make parents squirm.) The ending was maybe too tidy, so I'll give it four stars as a work of literature and one more for wearing its importance so lightly.