Schooled

Grieving the death of his free-spirited mother six months ago, Lenny Syms is not thrilled about living in college dorm housing with his emotionally distant Latin professor father. Lenny is even less excited to begin sixth grade at the Copernican School, an experimental on-campus program. Classes are taught by the professor parents of Lenny’s four classmates, and the structure is a mix of “self-care and group actualization,” independent study, and college class auditing, culminating in each middle schooler presenting a semester-long, self-directed project. Lenny elects to ignore most of the school’s requirements by engaging in “perfectly natural father-son rebellion,” born of Lenny’s simmering resentment over his dad’s withdrawal from parenting and refusal to talk about his mother. He does, however, sporadically attend a class on fairy tales taught by a charismatic elderly professor. But as the school year progresses, Lenny grows closer to his classmates, who support one another throughout various parental conflicts. Utilizing the school’s collegiate setting and the unique freedom and autonomy it affords the child protagonists, Sumner (Please Pay Attention) skillfully depicts standard coming-of-age themes like finding community and navigating grief with fresh humor and vitality. Lenny and his father cue as white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Keely Boeving, WordServe Literary. (Aug.)