The Ginghams

Kemper, T.C. The Ginghams
July 21, 2026 by Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Joni Bird has returned from an arts summer camp with her friend Tyler. The two had to leave behind their friend May, a drummer in Olive Springs because she had broken her arm. In their absence, May has started to hang out with a new girl, Charlotte Ann Gingham, whose family has an odd fashion sense and even odder world view. Charlotte Ann and her mother wear clothing reminiscent of the 1950s, heavy on pastel dresses, cardigans, and pearl accessories. They also espouse “virtues” of the era through their weekly book club that studies Mr. Gingham’s book Pillars of Perfection: Building a Flawless American Family. Since May has started wearing similar dresses instead of ironic band t-shirts, and putting her hair in a bun, Joni is concerned. The trio loves the Twister Trio series of graphic novels, but before long May is saying that they are inappropriate. Joni and Tyler, a boy who favors sparkly eyeshadow and paisley tank tops, spend a lot of time trying to research the Ginghams at their school library, consulting Miss Peters, an older woman with a bright pink Pixie and fun t-shirts. Joni’s parents make her attend the book club, and once Ms. Bird gets earrings from the Ginghams, she starts turning into one of them. Mr. Bird starts sporting a silver watch and also seems to change. More horribly, May’s cool mother, who runs the local Bookies and Cream bookstore/ice cream shop, stops riding her motorcycle and paints the cool store beige! Mr. Gingham runs for mayor, and Joni has her suspicions about what ‘s going on. When he persuades the school board to remove all of the books from the library for “evaluation” Joni and Tyler know they need to act. Will they be able to figure out how the Ginghams are brainwashing the town in order to stop them?
Strengths: The premise of this, as well as the mechanics of how people were controlled, was intriguing and a bit brilliant, and the book certainly embraces the current social zeitgeist concerning behavior, identity, and societal norms. Joni and her friends have a great relationship and varied interests, and it’s nice to see how well they complement each other. This makes the horror of May’s change all the more terrifying. Mr. Gingham is clearly the most evil, but he is also clever, glib, and politic… in the way that all the most truly evil people are. It’s a modern, middle grade twist on Ira Levin’s classic 1972 The Stepford Wives with the visual effect of the 1998 movie, Pleasantville.
Weaknesses: This felt very heavy handed. It seemed a bit odd that Joni and her friends complained that they were “weird” because they liked graphic novels and quirky fashions. ALL of my students seem to be this particular flavor of quirky, and even the new stereotype of school librarians is a dyed, tattooed, and pierced person in Chucks and message t-shirts. The Ginghams weren’t entirely wrong– aren’t most adults against social media apps and too many video games? To be petty, I’m not sure you can really describe a sweater as “gingham”. Gingham is a distinctive weave of fabric, but I guess you could reproduce this with knitted color work.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who like strong social commentary like King’s Attack of the Black Rectangles or Dee’s Tear This Down. It also could be paired with van Eekhout’s Happy Town, Haydu’s Eventown, or Korman’s Masterminds.  

I was so looking forward to this book, but was a little disappointed in the lack of nuance. I wanted Joni to be initially charmed by Charlotte Ann so the reality seemed harsher. Also, I can’t argue with another of Mr. Gingham’s dictates that our only value comes from our productivity, and if we aren’t useful, we have no value to parents or society. Okay, so maybe NO value is a bit harsh, but if I’m not doing something productive, what value do I really have? This is definitely a similar philosophy from my maternal line; both Helen (my mother) and Anna (my grandmother) were ALWAYS doing something, and I have embraced this fully. I fail to see why this is wrong, although I know full well that society has moved away from this. It will do no good to argue this with me.

This book did lead me to instruct my advisory group on different types of fabric, so that perhaps they will understand, at the very least, the difference between knit and woven fabric.