Friday- Underdog City

Negron, Chris. Underdog City
October 31, 2023 by HarperCollins
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Mortimer Bray used to enjoy his neighborhood of Townsend Heights, where his lawyer mother is a councilwoman, but the last year has been tough. His father, a science teacher, has started taking apart a lot of small appliances, thinking he can "fix" them. A beloved elderly neighbor, Ms. Opal, fell and broke a hip and had to move to assisted living. Mortimer hasn't been in touch with her because he feels guilty. He also feels guilty about what happened to his dog, Trevor, who ran away from him on a walk and was hit by a car. This impacts his dog walking business, which he has handed over to his best friend, Frankie, since he doesn't feel capable of continuing with it. There are new neighbors in Ms. Opal's house, the Cortez family, who are at odds with the other neighbors, especially the Brewsters, because they have a rooster that wakes everyone up each morning. When the Cortez' granddaughter, Will, spends the summer with them, she starts a rival dog walking business. Even though he is no longer in the business, Mortimer feels like he should help out his friend Frankie and find out what is going on. He and Will start an tentative friendship, and start delving into neighborhood issues, mainly because of the problems the family is facing because of the rooster, Gustavo, as well as some prejudice because the grandparents have come from Puerto Rico. They find out that Mr. Brewster has some plans to buy an empty lot and build a development called Brewster Station. He claims that it will raise property values, provide needed businesses, and generally improve the neighborhood, but Mortimer has his doubts. He finally visits Ms. Opal, because he can remember that she always reacted strongly to the vacant lot, and he finds that she has deep ties to decades old "urban renewal" that negatively impacted her family as well as the entire neighborhood. Is Mr. Brewster using his project to cover up a similar building project that might decimate Mortimer's neighborhood? When Frankie gets him some secret information that ties in with Ms. Opal's historical perspective, he and Will feel that they need to go to the council to protest. Given Mortimer's anxiety, will he be able to get up and address the group to let them know what's going on in order to save his community, especially since his mother seems to be supporting Mr. Brewster?

Strengths: Townsend Heights sounds like an interesting neighborhood, and Mortimer's investment in it is an unusal example of Kids Doing Things. I appreciated that he was willing to get to know Will and became friends with her, instead of relying on the middle grade trope disliking neighborhood interlopers. The Cortez family's history, and their reasons for having a rooster, were interesting, although I'm not sure how well a rooster would go over in my neighborhood! The trauma of losing his dog, and the guilt Mortimer feels, are understandable. Ms. Opal is a great character, and her family history in Townsend Heights was so interesting that I wish Mortimer had visited her a lot earlier. The parents were some of the better middle grade ones I've seen; briefly but fully developed as humans with their own issues, supportive of Mortimer but annoying in various ways, and ultimately there for Mortimer. The friendships with Will and Frankie also made sense. This is a great example of the type of realistic fiction that I'd love to see published more, since it's the kind of title apt to be purchased for literature circles and class discussion sets. 
Weaknesses: The council meeting scene at the end of the book had a lot of information about the neighborhood history, as well as a lot of description about Mortimer's anxiety. The history would have been better presented spread throughout the book, and the entire scene tightened up a bit. 
What I really think: While I enjoyed this author's Dan Unmasked and The Last Super Chef, they haven't circulated as much as I had hoped, mainly due to the longer length. Underdog City seems a bit shorter, and has a fantastic cover. I've added a copy to my list to purchase, and will hand it to fans of Fairbairn and Assarasakorn's Paws graphic novel series, Hoyle's Just Gus, Finnegan's New Kids and Underdogs, or Benedis-Grab, Daphne. Army Brats.