The Middle Kid

Gr 2-4–Stuck in the middle is tough. When you’re not bullied by your older brother, or in trouble for picking on your younger sister, you might as well be invisible. At first glance, it appears that the book is not only narrated by the kid, who is white, but illustrated by him, too. The end papers and short table of contents will make readers feel as if they have stumbled into the protagonist’s doodled-on composition book, the diary of a wimpy middle kid. However, once the first chapter opens, the conceit is dropped. The artwork is polished and professional, a refined version of that found in Weinberg’s illustrations for John Flannery’s Beard Boy. Each brief chapter details a different time the protagonist feels slighted by his parents and siblings. Only in the book’s final chapter does he finally feel like he fits in with his family. Characters are cleanly drawn and expressive, and their exuberant energy is barely contained by the lines that define them. However, the clean line art clashes with the amorphous watercolor backgrounds. For instance, the trees outside the library window look like green blobs in contrast to the sharp details of the building’s interior; when characters venture outside, it looks like they have wandered into another book. Luckily, most of the book is set indoors.