Schooled

Sumner, Jamie. Schooled
January 1, 2023 by Atheneum
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Lenny and his Latin professor father have moved from their home in New Jersey to Arrington University, where they will be living in student housing, since his mother passed away after battling skin cancer. His father, along with three other parents who work for the university in various capacities, have decided to work together to homeschool their children while incorporating the university resources. Fellow students include Hen, who likes to cleanse auras, Makai, who loves football and is especially interested in the Alabama team, Allison, who is interested in cosmetology, and David, who is interested in engineering. The Copernican "school" schedule is as follows: Mondays are for self care, Tuesdays are for auditing classes, Wednesdays are devoted to social integration, Thursdays to researching a project, and Fridays to visiting the library. The philosophy is that knowledge shouldn't just be handed to students, they need to find it for themselves. As the school year progresses, Lenny meets Vereen Winters (VW), a 76 year old literature professor whose wife also passed away in the past year. The two have a lot of interesting conversations about literature, including one about the Egyptian deity Anubis. VW also gives Lenny his personal copy of McCloud's Understanding Comics. This leads Lenny to make his special project a comic book involving Anubis and talking about processing grief that his father does NOT like at first. When VW doesn't show up for classes for several days, and Lenny is afraid he is being fired, Lenny and his classmates make some ill considered protests to try to save him. Will the Copernican 6th grade class graduate? 
Strengths: This was an interesting premise, and I would have loved to hang out on a college campus virtually when I was in 6th grade. It's an interesting look at collaborative home schooling with children who have access to all that a college has to offer. Lenny and the other students generally get along, and Lenny's relationship with VW was charming. Since Scott McCloud and Raina Telgemeier have a new book out, The Cartoonists Club, name dropping this influential graphic novel artist will resonate with young readers. The cover is charming. 
Weaknesses: I have many friends who wanted to be Latin or Classics professors, but even 30-40 years ago, there were no jobs. If Lenny's father thinks that "carpe cuppa" or "carpe syllabus" are proper Latin (both nouns should have accusative endings), I doubt very much he would get hired anywhere. Also, there are plenty of middle grade books dealing with the death of a parent. 
What I really think: This might be a good choice for readers who enjoyed hanging out on college campuses in Parks' The Summer of Brave or Wang's The Summer of Squee. I don't think that I have readers for this one, although Sumner's work is usually popular.