Breakout

Gr 4-8–Eighth grader Ellis Star is not a fan of waking up to find her face cosplaying as a pepperoni pizza. She doesn’t understand why her acne is getting worse and her mother is proving to be more overbearing than helpful when it comes to treating it. The only thing peskier than her acne and parental problems is her school capstone project. Meanwhile, her relationship with her best friend Aggy seems to be changing. Thankfully she has Aunt Lydia and her dog Roscoe to help her through it all. Aunt Lydia is training Roscoe to be a therapy dog, and Ellis discovers that dogs as stress relievers is the perfect topic. Wyman expertly captures the tween voice and struggles with Ellis as she navigates eighth grade. While her issues with acne are a focal point of the story, her relationships with her friends and family are also at the forefront. The topics discussed are handled with honesty and humor and don’t downplay that their importance for middle schoolers. Readers will enjoy learning they are not alone with the woes of middle school and find similarities with the characters; most characters are described as having skin tones that range from pale to olive, with the exception of Aggy, who has brown skin. An author’s note is included in the beginning of the book expressing her own experience with acne and how it influenced the struggles in the book.