Five Times Revenge

Gr 4–8—Five eighth-grade students plot and pull off an audacious revenge plot against the two biggest bullies at their school: classmate Hill Parmar and his father, the school's racist, embezzling principal. The story proceeds from a vicious bullying incident, in which Hill "persuaded [a protagonist's developmentally disabled brother] Tommy to play hide-and-seek after school, then locked him up in a utility room, with a sign that said 'Kick me, I'm retarded.' " While everyone involved has suffered some degree of bullying at the hands of Hill Parmar and his father, this incident proves a bridge too far. Rather than offering intricate plotting, this upper-middle grade novel focuses on the five protagonists' growth and development. How these characters come together to confront bullying and end up better understanding themselves and one another is what will pull tween readers in and keep them engaged when this fairly lengthy story's pace flags on occasion. Eland creates a cast of relatively fleshed-out, largely empathetic protagonists to whom a wide range of readers will be able to relate, with laudable attention paid to the microaggressions dealt with by the story's biracial violin prodigy.