A standoffish human thesaurus learns lessons beyond his hallowed knowledge of words.Following his widowed mother's stroke, bookish seventh grader William "Worser" Orser is obligated to endure his artistic, emotional aunt as caretaker for them both. If life at home before was sensibly beige, now it's obnoxiously purple. His one haven is the school library, where he avoids people and develops his Masterwork, an over-300-page lexicon (he is truly the child of professors). When the library hours are restricted by budget cuts, he relocates to a secondhand bookshop. Happily, his new refuge allows him to help his crush, Donya Khoury, who is desperate for a literary club meeting space. Joining the club by default, Worser feels needed and appreciated and avoids having to see his aunt, her dreadful cats, and (guiltily) his mother's severely altered state. But nothing is forever. He must face change and learn that etymological accuracy isn't directly proportionate to compassionate communication. Worser is abrupt and precise with his words, but this wonderfully layered story unfolds its many facets gently: finding refuge, garnering peer appreciation, questioning the way things were, and facing the toll of untreated trauma. Worser reads as White; Donya is presumably of Middle Eastern heritage, and the literary club seamlessly includes racial diversity and queer representation. The author has developed her main character so well it's hard to believe it's not biography-but it can certainly pass as the most entertaining New York Times crossword artillery you'll ever read.A lexical story of emotional evolution. (Fiction. 9-12)

A standoffish human thesaurus learns lessons beyond his hallowed knowledge of words.Following his widowed mother's stroke, bookish seventh grader William "Worser" Orser is obligated to endure his artistic, emotional aunt as caretaker for them both. If life at home before was sensibly beige, now it's obnoxiously purple. His one haven is the school library, where he avoids people and develops his Masterwork, an over-300-page lexicon (he is truly the child of professors). When the library hours are restricted by budget cuts, he relocates to a secondhand bookshop. Happily, his new refuge allows him to help his crush, Donya Khoury, who is desperate for a literary club meeting space. Joining the club by default, Worser feels needed and appreciated and avoids having to see his aunt, her dreadful cats, and (guiltily) his mother's severely altered state. But nothing is forever. He must face change and learn that etymological accuracy isn't directly proportionate to compassionate communication. Worser is abrupt and precise with his words, but this wonderfully layered story unfolds its many facets gently: finding refuge, garnering peer appreciation, questioning the way things were, and facing the toll of untreated trauma. Worser reads as White; Donya is presumably of Middle Eastern heritage, and the literary club seamlessly includes racial diversity and queer representation. The author has developed her main character so well it's hard to believe it's not biography-but it can certainly pass as the most entertaining New York Times crossword artillery you'll ever read.A lexical story of emotional evolution. (Fiction. 9-12)