There's a LOT of poop in this book, and if there's one thing middle schoolers love, it's a good poop story. (Full disclosure: I've never even run a 5K, so I'm guessing here.) I have to say I'm not sure how this metaphor will work to sell this book to my middle schoolers. If you're preparing for a marathon, the joy isn't just, or even mostly, about crossing the finish line, it's about the training-looking back on it, you realize that even when you were sweating, and felt like maybe you'd rather just be sitting on the couch eating a cookie, you were really having the time of your life. And the best rewards don't just come at the end you reap them throughout the whole process of earning them. But, most things that offer a rich reward take a bit of effort. This was not a fast, easy read for me, so I suspect it will not be fast and easy for many middle schoolers, the audience for whom this book is intended, and to whom, as a school librarian, I need to 'sell' it. those are the kind of books they are publishing. And after reading two Levine Querido books (the other one was Apple: Skin to the Core, by the phenomenal Eric Gansworth), and knowing what they have on the horizon, I feel like. I like a lot of books, but the ones I LOVE, the ones that are the reason reading is both my vocation and my avocation, are the ones that *make me think about things in a new way*. At the beginning of every year, I'll ask the kids what books they like to read, and I usually get answers like, 'Mysteries,' 'books that keep me turning pages,' or 'anything with lots of action.' But one year, a girl said-a 12-year-old-'I like books that make me think about things in a new way.' I wanted to hug her, because, YES. This is the second one I've read, and while it's an unrealistic commitment for a school librarian who's got to stay on top of every genre and every reading level to say that I'm going to read EVERYTHING Levine Querido publishes, I'm going to say that I will be paying very close attention to all of their releases and will read many of them. Truth: I was only supposed to take one, but I kept chatting with the rep there, and we'd talk about this book and that one, and he could tell I was so sincerely excited that he'd say, 'Okay, here, take this one too.

I was fortunate enough to pick up four Levine Querido arcs at ALA in January.

Everything sad is untrue book