March 3, 2026 by Wild Trail Press
Copy provided by Young Adult Books Central
In Brownsville, New York, we meet three students whose lives intersect even though they are very different and have varied interests. Sunny, who has alopecia, lives in a manufactured home park with her single father who runs a scrapyard, and is determined to win the school Junkbot competition. Her friend and neighbor Trev lives with his waitress mother, and his father who has left the family for a while but has returned. Both Trev and his father suffer from varying degrees of psoriasis. Their friend Vee is active on the swim team and has vitiligo. Trev, who is a big Frank Sinatra fan, wants to win a role in the school production of Grease so that he can hang out with his crush, Elliott, a big baseball star. The three friends put together a club to help them get motivated to make their dreams become reality. They make up a list of rules, challenge themselves to take risks, and call their group "The Secret Winners Club". They all need to consult someone who excels in their field to get advice to help them. Sunny talks to former Junkbot champion Chrissy, who works at the same diner as Trev's mother. Chrissy shares some of her expertise, but refuses to talk to Sunny after Sunny appears to be stealing her ideas. Trev talks to fellow dancer Jake, who agrees to help Trev practice for the audition. Vee looks up the record holder for her swim event. Ruby Janik set the record in 1963, when she was Vee's age, and agrees to talk to Vee, inviting her in for cocoa, and even agrees to coach her. Sunny has a partner in the competition, Jolie, who is very quiet. She lives in a nicer neighborhood adjacent to the shed where the club meets, and is caught eavesdropping on them. She tells them that she struggles with celiac disease, and would like to join their club. She is also a talented wood worker, although Sunny is reluctant to use her skills in constructing their Junkbot. The group meets regularly and celebrates their successes with the delicious (and gluten free) treats that Sunny's Dad makes. Trev wins a role in the play, and Jake admits that he has a crush on Trev, but Trev doesn't respond well. Trev also makes peace with a boy who has bullied him after Will, his understudy, admits that his father is in the Navy and never gets to see him perform. Sunny gets in trouble for copying someone else's design, and must finally rely on Jolie's help. Vee's swimming improves, and she breaks Ruby's record, although the victory isn't as sweet as she had hoped. Jolie has a fall in her workshop that imperils the Junkbot competition, and the mobile home park floods at a critical juncture. Will The Secret Winners Club be able to reach their goals despite the many setbacks they face?
A note at the end of the book shares that the author deals with several autoimmune disorders, and felt it was important to represent these in her book. My cousin's son had alopecia, and there were few books that showed a tween dealing with that condition, although there is a more recent book, Wilson's Sparkle. There are good details about how Vee's vitiligo is commented on by mean girls on her swim team, how Sunny covers her head with scarves of her own design, and how Trev manages his psoriasis. This will allow readers to gain some empathy, but none of the children's conditions are the main point of the story. I'm a big fan of books where Kids Do Things, and the members of The Secret Winners Club is very invested in their various activities.
Moss, N. West. Birdy
February 17, 2026 by Christy Ottaviano Books
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Birdy (May) and her younger brother Mouse (Michael), have had a hard life in Hell's Kitchen, New York City, with their mother. It seems she was at first a bit neglectful and prone to anger, and then passed away from cancer. With no father in the picture, the two children are sent to live with their "Aunt" Mitzi, a distant cousin, and her artist husband, Shadow, in upstate New York. Both are in their 70s, and Shadow has just fallen and broken his ankle. Mitzi is unsure about how to care for the children, but treats them gently, is quietly supportive, and allows them a lot of free time to do what they would like. There are a few rules, as well as light chores like cleaning up after themselves. Birdy is amazed at the amount of food in the house, since her mother often had none, and is concerned that she should have some money in case she and Mouse need to flee. She steals small amounts from Mitz's coffee can to bolster her reserves. Social services manages to locate Clay, a half brother of the mother's, and he comes to visit. He is a naturalist who works for a Maine parks department, and brings a goat and tame racoon with him. He, too, is very gentle with the children. Mouse takes to him right away, willingly leaving Birdy's side to sleep on the porch with Clay and the animals, and even Birdy reluctantly likes him. The children are sent to the Mighty Oak Day camp where they can interact with other children. Birdy, who bore the brunt of her mother's neglect and had to struggle to take care of Mouse, would prefer not to talk to anyone, and finds constantly being around people taxing. She frequently lashes out in her diary, and is standoffish with most people. She does develop a crush on an older counselor in training at the camp, and manages to make a friend. Clay decides that he will move to the area if it's okay with the children, and buys a run down property in which Shadow had been interested. After a social worker's visit, plans for a permanent placement are started. Birdy is relieved, but when her theft is finally realized, she worries that everything will fall through. Is there a happy ending for Birdy and Mouse?
Strengths: One of my favorite books as a child was Julie Andrews Edwards' 1974 Mandy, about a girl in an English orphanage who eventually gets placed in a loving family. Mitzi and Shadow's house in the country is very appealing, and Birdy is suddenly surrounded by nature (which she doesn't like), space, and adequate food and supervision. Understandably fearful, she is not pressed for interaction and given plenty of time to settle in. Uncle Clay brings another fun element to the story, with his animals and love of the outdoors. There are realistic scenes of Birdy having to interact with other children at camp. Her inner thoughts, expressed in her diary, are realistic; aren't there days when all of us hate EVERYONE? There's something oddly comforting about this story. Maybe I just want to hang out with Mitzi while she bakes in the kitchen.
Weaknesses: I wish that there had been more information about how Birdy and Mouse lived when they were with their mother. It's sketched in briefly, but the comfort of Birdy's new situation would have been even more of a relief if we had seen how bad her life was. Think about a book like Fipps' And Then Boom, where most of the book is about the neglect the character suffers; this is oddly appealing and comforting to my students. While I appreciate Birdy reading Voigt's 1981 Tillerman Cycle, I'm not sure how many people will understand this reference, since it's old enough that even most of our teachers would have missed it.
What I really think: This made me think of Fisher's Understood Betsy, and I enjoyed the gentle new situation in which Birday and Mouse found themselves. It has some similarities to other books about foster placements, including O'Shaughnessy's Lasagna Means I Love You, Farr's Pavi Sharma's Guide to Going Home, Little's Mostly the Honest Truth and Choldenko's The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman. I have a number of books like this that aren't getting read, so I may not buy this, although I would probably purchase this for an elementary school.
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