THE STILL FURTHER ADVENTURES OF JELLY BEAN

Life just isn’t getting any easier for the young eponymous hero in this installment of Pollack’s middle-grade series.

Summer vacation is coming up, but Jillian “Jelly Bean” Kramer has received bad news: Britney, her best friend, will soon be moving away from Springdale, New Jersey, to live with her father in Brooklyn. Jelly Bean still has people she can confide in, including her older brother (one of three), Sam, and Grandma, her current roommate. But Sam is busy studying hard for college and working a part-time job, and Grandma’s new relationship with her boyfriend, Bob, could mean she’ll be leaving the Kramer household. Once Jelly Bean’s fifth-grade year begins, she finds herself dealing with friends who are no longer chummy. Nevertheless, she keeps her head up, taking on a science class experiment, trying out a brand-new sport, and offering comfort to someone who suffers a tragedy. And despite Jelly Bean having only just met her, Carolee, who’s dating the fifth-grader’s beloved Uncle Jack, is readily available for much-needed advice. Pollack’s recurring character, in her third outing, is evolving—Jelly Bean, while not immune to snarky remarks, now handles mean girls with confidence. Her typically obnoxious brother Joel is also “getting much more mature,” or so he claims, and Jack, who’s had problems in the past, enjoys a healthy relationship with Carolee. The narrative, as in the previous entries, is relaxed (“The pancakes were delicious. Everyone ate them with gobs of syrup. Jelly Bean ate till she was full”), even as it tackles real-world issues (for example, Britney, as the only Black girl among her friends, feels she doesn’t “fit in”). Readers will eagerly anticipate more from this wonderful protagonist, her family, and her dog, Roger-Over, who’s always there to lend a furry ear.

This ongoing coming-of-age saga proves as engaging and irresistible as ever.