THE FREE STATE OF JAX

Feeling powerless and victimized, 12-year-old Jaxon Averett makes a literal bid to put himself on the map by declaring a pond in Walkonby, Kansas, his personal micronation.

In this break from her recent string of historical novels, Nielsen demands considerable suspension of disbelief from readers but rewards them with some provocative ideas, a flurry of gleefully rousing hijinks, and a winningly smart, sensitive protagonist. Orphaned at 3 and spurred by the revolting prospect of being formally adopted by Clive and Helga Grimmitz, his uncle and aunt—a couple whose malignancy is matched only by that of most of their six offspring—Jaxon studies up on “eminent domain.” He then resolutely declares reclusive neighbor Owen O’Keefe’s pond to be the titular country. Asserting independence is one thing, of course; keeping it is quite another. Jax plunges into a quick education in the art of being a head of state—which ranges from negotiating deals with both skeptical and surprisingly sympathetic grown-ups and a dozen eager young applicants for dual citizenship to waging out-and-out war with a bevy of horrid relatives and their smarmy lawyer. Nielsen also threads in multiple mysteries wrapped around missing treasures and family rifts, plus a destructive tornado and even a possible murder. Still, multiple massive contrivances later, the author wrests happy outcomes for all—even the shiftless Grimmitz clan. The leads present white.

An overloaded but exceptionally feel-good story.