The Ripple Effect

November 1, 2024

Gr 4-6-Told through many people's eyes, this character-driven realistic fiction focuses on community. Zella is worried about elementary school ending and the way all her classmates seem to be maturing and growing past her. She has one last chance to cement her legacy by pulling off an epic class prank, but when it goes wrong due to her own insecurities, the redeeming act will have an impact on the entire community. While Zella is the main character, the story is narrated by a rotating cast of kids and even some adults. Their voices are distinct and add depth to the plot, and this style generally enhances the book. It can be confusing sometimes as the short chapters jump characters, but Caprara skillfully weaves strands together. It also lengthens the admittedly long set-up for the prank, which occurs well past the halfway mark. This building up of tension and flaws in Zella makes the concluding act more poignant, but also leads to a slightly rushed final third of the book. The overarching moral is clear without being pedantic. VERDICT A charming multiple-perspective novel featuring character growth and the power of community; a great addition to larger libraries.-Elizabeth Nicolai

Copyright 2024 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 4, 2024
To secure her title as the class clown, sixth grader Marzella Trudi is determined to come up with the best class prank her small town of Kettleby has ever seen. With the help of best friends Bowie, an organized pianist, and Janea, a fashionista with a growing online presence, Zella attempts to generate the perfect idea; she’s simultaneously concerned about her family’s failing ice cream business and her grandfather’s worsening dementia. Zella finally hits on a plan, but when the prank backfires spectacularly, the whole class is punished, and Zella must find a way to make amends. By utilizing alternating first- and third-person narrators—including Zella, Bowie, and Janea, as well as other classmates and Kettleby residents—Caprara (Worst-Case Collin) underscores the importance of community in this saccharine paean to paying it forward. A leisurely buildup shifts gears into rapid-fire snapshots depicting community spirit and the importance of kindness and cooperation, making for a quiet small-town novel that eschews self-reflection and drawn-out conflict for tidy, sometimes passive solutions. Characters are racially diverse. Ages 9–12. Agent: Allison Hellegers, Stimola Literary Studio.

December 15, 2024
A small-town tween dreams of leaving her mark before moving on to middle school. Italian American Marzella Trudi lives in Kettleby, a former mill town in the Northeast, where her mom runs the family ice cream shop, Trudi Treats. But Nan died, Pops' dementia is getting worse, and the shop might be in trouble. Zella also worries about being "left out and left behind"; her best friends, Janea and Bowie, have their interests in fashion and music, respectively, and class clown Zella feels pressure to leave her own mark by coming up with the best sixth grade prank ever. When she does come up with a great idea, a mishap leads to disaster. Given a second chance, Zella redeems herself through what she dubs the Ripple Effect: performing acts of kindness and challenging others to pay them forward, thus having an exponential effect on Kettleby and its residents. Zella is the central narrator, but Janea, Bowie, fifth grade journalist Shelby, new kid Declan, and others each have several brief chapters, offering readers insights into their own struggles, such as Bowie's parents' divorce and Declan's sister's health concerns. The takeaway message--"kindness is its own sort of magic"--is reminiscent of Kelly Barnhill'sThe Ogress and the Orphans, and though Zella's story doesn't have the same mythic heft, a touch of something inexplicable and joyful brightens the tale. The cover art points to some racial diversity among the supporting cast. An uplifting story of personal and community transformation.(Fiction. 9-12)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.