Making Plans for Nigel Binty
by Shawn K. Stout
Intermediate, Middle School    Peachtree    272 pp.
2/26    9781682635889    $17.99

Sixth grade gets off to a shaky start for Nigel Binty. Not only have his parents separated, but his longtime best friend has also deserted him in search of popularity. The anxiety he carries around is evident in everything he does as he tries to stick to the first step of his middle-school survival plan: “Don’t Do Anything Weird.” Meanwhile, Glory Bea Medford finds herself uprooted from her former life in Tennessee to Nigel’s Maryland town. She lives with her aunt now that her father, a reverend, has landed in prison for stealing money from his church. Told in alternating perspectives, the story carries these two strikingly different characters on mostly parallel journeys, each struggling at home and at school, until antics on an overnight field trip force them together in an unfortunate collision of kindness, cruelty, and betrayal. Their personal stories are equally compelling, and the plot speeds along as they both try to sort out and accept who they are as people in spite of everyone around them. The characters, including secondary ones, are complex and believable. Sprinkled with funny moments as well as homages to books, authors, and the power of writing, this sincere book concludes with hope.

From the January/February 2026 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.