Virtually Me

Three seventh graders attending a virtual-reality school amid the Covid-19 pandemic reinvent themselves through their avatars in this thought-provoking read from previous collaborators Morris and Brown (Squint). Bradley Horvath, a white-cued kid who endured fatphobic bullying during in-person schooling, channels his private obsession with K-pop to present himself as pink-haired dancing Daebak (Korean for awesome) upon starting at Balderstein Virtual Junior High. Popular half-white and half-Palestinian Edelsabeth "Edelle" Dahan-Miller is an unwilling student, forced by her mother to use a plain-looking persona after an obsession with her placement on a prettiness-rating website at her former school eroded her mental health. Blond charismatic jock Hunter Athanasopoulos's avatar is based on his appearance before a recent onset of alopecia. The three students previously knew each other IRL, but now they don't recognize one another beyond their assumed identities. This discerning examination of middle school social dynamics provides emotional and insightful throughways to difficult conversations surrounding mental health, friendship, and perception of self via three empathetic protagonists striving to fit in and learning that it's okay to be oneself. Final art not seen by PW. Ages 8-11. (Feb.)

Gr 3-7--Remember the push to be productive during the pandemic? Morris and Brown accepted that challenge, writing a middle school ode to individuality fueled by remote learning options. Their tale follows three students, chronicling why each one enrolls in the fanciest virtual middle school imaginable. Seriously, socializing there is realistic and visceral, even down to a seamless virtual dance. Each narrator has different motivations--hating public school, "embarrassing" medical problems, parental interventions--but through it all, they begin examining what fuels their relationships. Messages about accepting people for who they are on the inside are ideal for the target tween/early teen group. There is a humanizing inclusion of the bully's viewpoint, where a shallow popular kid experiences a middle grade dark night of the soul. A potential shortcoming may be that the topic of COVID-19--fueled creativity might lend to a short shelf life. The pandemic is written in bold present tense, with masks and quarantining used without explanation. With a tone perfectly geared towards older elementary and young middle school students, it is possible the COVID-19 references may date the plot. VERDICT A classic "be yourself" tale, with enough VR bells and whistles to keep tweens interested.--Cat McCarrey