ONE SMALL HOP

Four seventh graders go on an adventure to save what they think may be the last bullfrog in Maine.

It is the mid-to-late 21st century, and climate change has suffocated the town of Blue Harbor, Maine. The ocean is toxic, the sun is scalding, and the natural world is decimated. When Leroy Varney, paddling a canoe he made for a school project, stumbles across a live lobster in a stream on an island near the town, he brings it back to try to save it, but it is taken away by the Environmental Police Force—an inept government agency tasked with “PROTECTING THE WORLD FROM YOU; PROTECTING YOU FROM THE WORLD.” Friends Jonathan “Ahab” Goldstein (who is the first-person narrator), Delphinium “Delph” Perez, and Davy Hudson convince Leroy to paddle them out to the island to see if anything else is alive. When they find a solitary bullfrog, they decide to take matters into their own hands, leading them into more adventure than they’ve ever had in their lives. Along the way they experience a less-decimated natural world and learn about the power of friendship, trust, and, most importantly, hope. Add to this solid theme occasional social irony and the story sparkles like a gem. Davy is cued as Black and Delph as Latinx; other main characters default to White.

In turns adroitly funny and heartbreakingly sad but ultimately inspiring.