Publishers Weekly
★ 03/21/2016
“Sometimes I wonder when the me I am right now will get covered up by a bigger me, and I wonder who the bigger me will be,” worries 10-year-old Maggie. Why doesn’t her older sister play with her anymore? What will happen to the baby rabbits next door? Why isn’t her father ever home? Will the school bully get a gun? These are just a few of the questions, big and small, that consume Maggie’s anxious mind in debut author Lane’s emotionally intense coming-of-age story. After a random shooting at a nearby convenience store, Maggie’s mind goes into overdrive. Many chapters are only a page long and read like a growing prayer list as Maggie ritualistically soothes her racing mind: “Front door locked, kitchen door locked.... Please don’t let anyone kill anyone or anything, please don’t let anyone kill anyone or anything.” Though there are no tidy beginnings or endings in Maggie’s swirling first-person narrative, Lane crafts a powerful portrait of a girl wrangling with deeply relatable concerns, which will easily resonate with readers confronting a complex and uncertain world. Ages 8–12. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency. (June)
From the Publisher
Praise for The Best Worst Thing:"An incandescent debut. Long after you've finished The Best Worst Thing, you'll remember Kathleen Lane's brave and good-hearted Maggie and how she learns to face her fears. A writer to watch, a voice to savor, a novel to cherish."—Katherine Applegate, Newbery medal-winning author of The One and Only Ivan
"I loved this book. Simple, tender, and real, The Best Worst Thing is packed with heart."—Ali Benjamin, author of National Book Award Finalist The Thing About Jellyfish
* "Lane crafts a powerful portrait of a girl wrangling with deeply relatable concerns, which will easily resonate with readers confronting a complex and uncertain world."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "Thoughtful characterization and relatable themes make this a strong purchase."—School Library Journal, starred review
"Lane's prose is quietly powerful, plain yet poetic....A tender, sober portrait of a middle schooler with OCD."—Kirkus Reviews
"First-person narration along with brief chapters, with some just a headline, set a deliberate pace and keep readers engaged in Maggie's story—and don't worry, the murderer gets caught."—The Horn Book
"Lane writes beautifully throughout."—Booklist
"Students making the transition from elementary school to middle school, or grappling with feelings of being an outsider, will be able to identify with Maggie's struggles."—School Library Connection
"Maggie's voice, melodramatic and obsessive as it is, is clearly and consistently developed, and it grants a kind of intimacy that middle-school readers with their own set of sometimes overwhelming fears will appreciate."—The Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books
School Library Journal
★ 03/01/2016
Gr 4–6—Right after 11-year-old Maggie and her two sisters return from the neighborhood Mini Mart, they learn it was robbed and the cashier shot and killed. The murderer fled on foot down Elm Street—Maggie's street! In the days following the crime, she imagines the killer in her house and checks the doors, under the beds, and in closets several times each night. Middle school brings more anxiety as she experiences other situations that are out of her control. Her best friend begins to hang out with the popular girls, a bully from her class is turning 12 and receiving his first gun (which she worries he may use on her if he gets mad enough), and her older neighbor who raises rabbits sells the "leftover" ones to the market for food. Maggie becomes increasingly dependent on performing routines and rituals to ease her anxiety; she counts to herself repeatedly while making sure things are evenly numbered. Lane interlaces a minor character, Gordy Morgan the bully, into the plot with finesse, offering a nuanced depiction instead of a mere archetype. The protagonist is able to use the strength she finds in a budding friendship to foster a positive change in her perspective of the world. Not only can this book serve as bibliotherapy for those with obsessive-compulsive disorder and high anxiety, but readers of all kinds will also find much here to ponder and discuss. VERDICT Thoughtful characterization and relatable themes make this a strong purchase.—D. Maria LaRocco, Cuyahoga Public Library, Strongsville, OH
Kirkus Reviews
2016-03-30
Scary things are happening, but Maggie can protect everyone if she gets her ritualized recitations right."It's the night we're going to get murdered so we're sleeping on the living room floor," she opens her narration. There's just been a murder nearby, and the suspect is uncaptured. Mom and Dad aren't worried, but anxiety and dread are big inside Maggie. Vulnerable baby bunnies next door are being raised for a restaurant; a classmate's expecting a gun for his 12th birthday and seems likely to use it; and the murderer could be close by. Lane's prose is quietly powerful, plain yet poetic: "my stomach doesn't want me to go outside." Tormented with intrusive visualizations of violence, Maggie holds her breath for counts of 60 and always recites her not-quite-prayer pleas twice each: "Please don't let Gordy or the murderer kill us or anyone, please don't let Gordy or the murderer kill us or anyone." Things are scary, though Maggie also clearly has OCD or a like illness (never named); readers feel her anxiety and burden through her compulsory rituals, which will "keep us all from dying and keep the baby bunnies safe." Maggie and her environment are presumably white; nonwhite allusions like "teepee eyebrows" are used as flavor, while two evidently black classmates are used as a historical desegregation reference, much to Maggie's discomfort.A tender, sober portrait of a middle schooler with OCD. (Fiction. 9-13)
