August 15, 2023 by Candlewick Press
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
Jonas is in middle school on the Jersey Shore, and has a solid group of friends, including Mikey, Aaron, Darius, and Concepción, with whom he sometimes has difficulties. At home, he has to deal with two households; his mother's small house, and his dad's condo. He goes between the two of them with his seven year old sister, Rex. Last year, at Halloween, Jonas and his friends engaged in their yearly tradition of snatching candy from younger children. His thoughts are that no one ever got hurt, but last year things went sideways in a way he didn't expect. Now, someone is leaving him notes at school that say things like "I know it was you," and "Watch your back". Jonas already feels a lot of guilt, and when Concepción (whom he calls C.) asks him to write an article for her zine on "the worst thing you ever did", guilt begins to eat at him even more. He has a typewriter given to him by Stew, who used to babysit him and Rex, and who now is manager of the Soho Stationery shop and has a boyfriend who is a pro skater. Jonas starts writing poems about his worst experiences, and between chapters we seem some of the zine pages he creates, along with illustrations. As his guilt becomes more and more overwhelming, will he find a way to process them and make things right?
The only other middle grade book I've ever seen that included information about zines was Perez's 2017 The First Rule of Punk. While they had their heyday in the 1980s and 90s (before the wide spread use of the internet), zines are apparently seeing a resurgence among young people, not that the internet isn't as novel. I've yet to see any emerge from my school, but will say that Jonas if lucky that Stew gave him a typewriter. I saw one marked at $60 at my local thrift store, and it wasn't even as pink and cool as Jonas' sounded!
The real appeal of this book is the format; not only are there illustrations by the talented Theodore Taylor III in between chapters, decorating zine articles, but there are no quotation marks. Instead, all of the text is left justified, but there is more white space between each separation. This is rather unique, and will appeal to readers who want a book that looks longer than it actually is.
There are a few negative comments centered on Stew and his lifestyle, but they are made by one of the bullies, who is not seen as a positive character.
Readers who are looking for a Halloween story won't find a lot of holiday details here, but those who want a story about guilt and its raminfications like the conduct-of-life themes in Stead's The List of Things That Will Not Change, Culley's The Natural Genius of Ants, or Lockington's In the Key of Us will appreciate Jonas' journey.
I'm not sure that this is a book that my students are going to enjoy, so may pass it on to another school. If this had centered more on Halloween, it would definitely have been popular. There just aren't any books about the preparations and celebration of Halloween and trick or treating, other than Charlie Bumpers and the Squeaking Skull, or a few series that might have an installment about the holiday. (Like Sheth's Nina Soni: Halloween Queen (Nina Soni #4) or Brown's Lola Levine and the Halloween Scream (#6))
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