Friends since grade school, Elias, Shohei, and Honoria are right in the middle of a rather sticky phase of their lives. Elias is the youngest child of a family that includes classical musicians and scientists. He is entering his exclusive private school's science fair with not much enthusiasm just so that his father doesn�t have to be a judge. Elias is trying to duplicate the results of his older brother's science fair project, playing different kinds of music to plants to see how the plants respond. In the process he gets himself in trouble because his findings are different than his brother�s. Shohei is the Japanese-born adopted son of Caucasian parents who are force-feeding him bits and pieces of his native culture, his mother is obsessed with having him experience Japanese culture, with Japanese food in his lunches, enforced special lessons, and so forth. Honoria is a serious participant in the fair and is trying to teach a pair of piranhas to prefer bananas over meat. She is also interested in the anonymous e-mails she is getting from an admirer and trying to figure out how to tell Shohei that she likes him as more than just a friend.
Smith uses a diary format for the chapters, each of which reveals part of the story from a different character's perspective. These are smart kids that attend a gifted school! �The Peshtigo School of Chicago has a reputation for being highly intense. We have to take at least one foreign language, all kinds of math and science, a musical instrument, a fall or spring sport, and at least one non-athletic extracurricular activity.� Aside from the main science emphasis there is a touch of romance, Honoria likes Shohei but doesn�t know that Elias likes her as more than a friend and Shohei is trying to get them together. Although this is a good contemporary realistic fiction book, a court case is presented quite well as Elias gets in trouble for �malicious hooliganism and vandalism� when he changes the music in the atrium to prove his experiment is valid. A fresh, unusual story of friendship and honesty, riddled with wit, intelligence, and more than a few chuckles. Definitely a good example of something that could possibly happen with the protagonists being a group of children all facing various problems that real students face at school.
Elizabeth Young states, "Overall this novel has great potential for classroom discussion, but is equally enjoyed as a solo escape from reality. Hopefully this will not be the last we hear from Greg Leitich Smith." ~ Children's Literature
Texas Women's University
A requirement for LS 5603