RACHEL TAKES THE LEAD

A shy 12-year-old runs for seventh grade representative against a popular mean girl.

Rachel Levin-Lopez, a White-presenting Latinx girl, has two very overprotective moms. Before Rachel was even born, Mom and Mami had lost another daughter to a tragic accident, so now she’s the only seventh grader who’s not allowed to walk to school alone. But for the first time, timid Rachel has friends: the Spyglass Sisterhood—ordinary Ellie, who is White; blunt and brilliant Kiara, who is Black; and sarcastic goth Alyssa, who is of South Asian descent. She and her friends have discovered that the telescope in Ellie’s house sometimes reveals people’s wishes and fears. Despite this magical element, the plot is grounded in familiar middle-grade themes; it serves mostly as a frame for a series of events in which Rachel finds a lost dog and gains some confidence. Kiara has nominated a reluctant Rachel to be the class representative, as her ideas for the role really are pretty great. With some cheerleading from the sisterhood, Rachel learns to speak up for herself at home and school both. The dialogue often reads far more like an adult’s than a 12-year-old’s, and Rachel’s opponent is cartoonishly vapid, but overall it’s a decent character arc—and Rachel gets to keep the dog. The characters’ diversity is mostly superficial; racial identity is not plumbed.

Pleasant enough.