The Greenies

Gr 4-7–Starting at a new school is tough for Violet. The only person she knows there is her offbeat cousin Kris, and moving from the Chicago suburbs to St. Louis after her parents’ divorce hasn’t been easy either. Luckily, the Drama Club kids welcome her into their circle quickly, and she attends a raucous lunch-hour party that gets the whole group in trouble. In lieu of detention, the vice-principal orders them to help out with the school’s under-attended environmental club. That solution comes with complicated social politics—Violet’s cousin’s ex-best-friend is the leader of the drama crew and particularly reluctant to the assignment, and Violet longs to impress her while remaining in her cousin’s good graces. The title feels a bit misleading; The Greenies suggests an environmental consciousness at the story’s heart, when it’s more focused on the ups and downs of middle school friendships. Ultimately, though, the cobbled-together crew do embrace a mutual purpose in school recycling duty and neighborhood clean-up efforts, allowing them to see themselves in a more socially aware, less self-centered context. Mills’s previous work in YA novels is reflected in dense, deliberate character development, while Kennedy’s illustrations are detailed and slightly wavy, approximating the wobbly feeling of adolescence without sacrificing visual clarity. Violet has dark hair and pale skin, her newfound friends have a broad range of skin tones and hair colors.