Playing Through the Turnaround
by Mylisa Larsen
Middle School     Clarion/HarperCollins    272 pp.         g
10/22     978-0-358-64549-8     $16.99
e-book ed.  978-0-358-63958-9    $10.99

Eighth graders Jake, Cassie, Lily, Nick, and Mac all face very different, complicated struggles, but each has found comfort and confidence in a musical instrument and now in one another in a special class at their Upstate New York middle school. “Any dumb thing that might have happened before this doesn’t matter anymore, because it’s a good day whenever it’s Jazz Lab day.” The third-person-omniscient narrative alternates among the perspectives of these five characters plus one more: a detached, defiant, and chronically misunderstood student known as Quagmire. As their stories knit together and unforeseen circumstances threaten the future of Jazz Lab, these students find themselves at risk of losing what they depend on to propel them through their daily challenges. Each distinctly developed character has an engaging story and voice. As they plot to save Jazz Lab (and ultimately many other small electives and activities), the novel’s pacing heightens and intensifies. Their struggle to make their position heard by the cast of outrageously obtuse adults both at home and at school—with a few effective exceptions—creates the perfect amount of tension to draw readers in to a funny, sad, and heartwarming story that celebrates the importance of independence, belonging, and the arts.

From the September/October 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.