Shine!

September 1, 2019
Previously a "blender," Piper Milly finds a way to shine in a school full of would-be stars. Piper's father's new job is choral director at Chumley Prep, a tony independent school where everyone's an achiever. It comes with full tuition for Piper, who's now able to attend the school where her deceased mother once shone. Feeling out of place and extremely untalented in this new, more competitive world, seventh grader Piper eventually finds friends and discovers that her empathy and willingness to help others make her stellar, too. She even finds it possible to do something nice for the classmate who has made fun of her and her father from their very first encounter. From a characterization standpoint, Piper's enthusiasm for astronomy helps her stand out as a protagonist in this novel about finding one's place in middle school, but her nemesis, Ainsley Braden-Hammerschmidt, is drawn as an all-too-familiar arrogant child of privilege. The puzzle here is more subtle than in some of co-author Chris Grabenstein's previous Mr. Lemoncello books: There's a new prize at Chumley Prep, the Excelsior Award; every student hopes to win it, but no one knows quite how. A subplot involving a teacher who hasn't gotten over her resentment of Piper's mother seems extraneous, but there's plenty of believable dialogue and humor. The cast is default white; Piper's friends have names representative of different cultures and are gratifyingly quirky. A crowd-pleasing reminder that kindness pays. (Fiction. 10-13)

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September 16, 2019
In the married coauthors’ collaborative debut, seventh grader Piper believes that only some people are “meant to shine. Others are better off blending in.” Her mother, who died when Piper was three, was a talented cellist, and her father is a choir director, but Piper herself “can’t carry a tune in a lunch box.” After her dad gets a job at posh Chumley Prep—prompting a transfer for Piper, too, to the school where her mother once excelled—the girl becomes the target of class mean girl Ainsley. When an all-school award with deliberately vague criteria (“excel”) is announced, Piper is sure she has no shot. When she wins the science fair, though, thanks to her interest in astronomy, her friends think she is a front-runner. They work to find Piper something at which she can shine, but she becomes sure she won’t be chosen when outside occurrences (helping a lost kindergartner and a cafeteria worker in need) make her constantly late to class. Whatever the contest’s outcome, the girl’s realization that she has been shining all along is the true victory. This encouraging story of self-discovery celebrates friendship, kindness, and self-actualization, and readers will relate to the realistic middle school dynamic and well-developed characters. Ages 8–12.

November 1, 2019

Gr 4-6-Seventh-grader Piper is heartbroken when she learns that she has to leave her public school and begin mid-year at Chumley Prep, the local independent school. Her father, a choral teacher who dreams of writing Broadway musicals, has been offered a position at Chumley which comes with full tuition for Piper. Since Piper's mother died when she was three, she and her father have supported each other, and Piper knows how important this opportunity is to him. Just as Piper expects, she initially feels out of place and some of the Chumley students are not very welcoming-especially Ainsley Braden-Hammerschmidt, who tries to sabotage all of Piper's attempts to thrive at her new school. When an award for the student who "most fully demonstrates overall excellence" is announced, some of the students plan strategies to win the anonymous judge's favor. Piper, who shines primarily in science, does not feel confident about winning the award. By the end of the book, Piper has embraced a diverse group of new friends, connected with several teachers, and learned to love her school. VERDICT Piper is likeable and empathetic and the "bad guys," while exaggerated, make this a lighthearted and fast-paced book. The strong message about the power of kindness will be encouraging to readers, and fans of Grabenstein's "Mr. Lemoncello" series will enjoy a different kind of puzzle.-Shelley Sommer, Inly School, Scituate, MA

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2019
Grades 3-6 Piper is smart, kind, and obsessed with astronomy, but she has always been overshadowed by her beloved late mother's legacy of excelling at, well, everything, and as Piper starts the spring semester of seventh grade at her mom's former prep school, that shadow engulfs her even more fully. When the school announces that a mysterious new award will be given to a student who excels, Piper wonders if she can finally find a way to truly shine and match her mother's glory. This is a story that happily upsets the trope of the lonely new kid in school, with Piper having an array of quirky friends and helpful teachers, plus a doting father and female astronomer role model to help her navigate the maze of middle school as well as the competition. The Grabensteins' writing is warm and humorous, sneaking in the occasional astronomy fact along the way. This gentle book offers a wonderful reminder that kindness, generosity, and love far outweigh the importance of money, awards, and prestige.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)