Ari is a self-described fat kid who hates it when people call him names, as, inevitably, they do. He's Baby Huey, for example, to those who unfeelingly ask "Why are you so fat?" Happily, he makes two friends at his new school: the boy he nicknames Pick, who tells him hard truths about himself; and Lisa, who comes from a troubled home and with whom Ari will fall in love. At his own home, his parents' marriage is failing and soon his father moves out. Summer comes and Ari and his mom move to the beach where Ari, who launches himself on a diet, wonders who he is and where his caring friends are who might help him answer that question. This coming-of-age novel in verse is a classic story of change and a search for self. It's a beautifully written (a "clear thought" is "like starlight;" Lisa's voice is "a waterfall") and psychologically acute debut. Readers will be glad to accompany Ari on his journey to self-discovery.

Seventh-grader Ari Rosensweig is the new kid, "awkward, big, different / from everyone else." Picked on and beat up, Ari is drawn to other worlds where characters transform heroically (e.g., Avatar). The verse novel is a well-chosen format for Baron's debut, with his first-person narrative effectively revealing the protagonist"s growth step by step. Any reader who has felt like an outsider will be drawn to this verse novel.