Happy & Sad & Everything True
by Alex Thayer
Middle School    Aladdin/Simon    272 pp.
11/24    9781665955249    $17.99
e-book ed.  9781665955263    $10.99

Dee is struggling in sixth grade: she hears other girls gossiping about her appearance, sees her single mom flirting with her gym teacher, and feels like her best friend is ignoring her. Thayer dictates Dee’s stream-of-consciousness observations through occasional mental lists that read like free verse (“in the future /stop asking so many questions! / stop talking so much!”) and heightened sensory details (her school-bathroom refuge features cool-to-the-touch “wet-noodle” wall tiles and a leaky faucet’s refrain of da-wip, da-wip) that define her perceptive, sensitive mindset. Dee finds unexpected comfort in commiserating with classmate Harry through a grate connecting the girls’ and boys’ bathrooms, and the vent inadvertently turns into a confession booth where students ask for Dee’s help coping with their fears. These amateur advice sessions allow her to offer her classmates—whose problems are mostly mundane and easily fixed—some of the comfort and direction for which she also longs. Thayer champions the positive impact of Dee’s kindness while demonstrating how ignoring her own anxieties only makes helping others more difficult. Most touching is an investigation of the parental impact on a child’s views: after witnessing the negative behaviors that her peers inherited from their parents, Dee grows to appreciate her unconventional mother’s support and the empathy she’s been taught.

From the ">January/February 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.