It’s Girls Like You, Mickey

This standalone companion to Kim’s I’m Ok shifts the focus to Ok’s friend Mickey McDonald, now starting the seventh grade and exchanging postcards with Ok, who has moved away. After the family is deserted by her father, self-described “fat poor white girl” Mickey lives with her overworked, irritable mother and helps care for her little brother, Benny, and their menagerie of animals. When new girl Sun Joo, who is Korean, is assigned to be Mickey’s science partner, Mickey helps Sun Joo acclimate, learning Korean phrases and relishing having someone make her a friendship bracelet and nominate her for student government. Mickey sees a chance for them both to upgrade socially when Sun Joo gains the favor of the most popular girl in school, but encouraging her to join the popular group destroys their friendship and tests Mickey’s unshakable confidence. Despite money stress at home, Mickey stays upbeat and inventive, as when she creatively repurposes a pillowcase into a skirt, and models both empathy and compassion while confidently standing up to the school’s mean girl. Along with her desire to help others, Mickey’s unfiltered commentary, for example about her first period and her mother’s smoking habit, make her an inimitable protagonist worth rooting for. Ages 10–up. [em](June) [/em]