Rules for Camouflage

Gr 9 Up–Evvie Chambers can’t wait to graduate high school. After all, avoiding bullies, dealing with her biology teacher Mrs. Dearborn, and camouflaging her true self all day takes up a lot of energy. Thank goodness for the Lair: a storage room transformed into a secret space “for all the kids who need time-outs on a regular basis. Good time-outs. Not the punishing kind.” Kids like Evvie. She knows she has an “unruly brain,” she just doesn’t see what’s wrong with that. Fortunately Rachel, the band teacher, understands. So does Evvie’s mom (who recently discovered her own neurodiversity), and Evvie’s best friend Ken. But Mrs. Dearborn doesn’t, and she’s Evvie’s final hurdle before a gap year to work with Aretha, an octopus at the Minnesota Zoo and Evvie’s “most favorite animal on Earth besides [her] cat, Popcorn.” Things are not going well: Mrs. Dearborn requires a final presentation on foxes instead of octopuses, Ken is struggling with potential alcohol abuse, and rumors abound that the Lair will be closed. So when Evvie meets Blue, she adds navigating her first relationship to an already overwhelming list. At times her talk around labels (which are never disclosed) takes readers out of the story, and some characters are cartoonishly cruel, particularly when a fellow student is attacked. Still, readers will root for Evvie’s success and appreciate her deep connection to Aretha and the way the octopus, master of camouflage, teaches Evvie all the lessons she needs to live and love comfortably in her own skin.