cover image Carlos Is Gonna Get It

Carlos Is Gonna Get It

Kevin Emerson, . . Scholastic/Levine, $16.99 (291pp) ISBN 978-0-439-93525-8

Seventh-grader Trina and her friends have had enough of Carlos, the disturbed kid in class whose bizarre behavior always gets everyone else in trouble. They come up with a plan—to scare Carlos big-time during their upcoming class overnight at Mount Cardigan. Trina, the narrator, is not a bad kid, and she's initially reluctant to go along with the scheme, until Carlos embarrasses her in front of the whole class. Even so, Trina feels increasingly plagued by a “guilt-demon.” Emerson (the Oliver Nocturne series) makes the tug-of-war within Trina—between her growing empathy for Carlos and her desire to fit in with her friends—realistic and compelling: “It's just too bad you don't have a little card that you can use at, like, a store, to swap yourself into another body for a while, until the heat of your own life cooled down.” Though the prank plays out melodramatically, Trina's narration is authentic, and dialogue involving parents, teachers and classmates feels lifelike, too. Ages 9–12. (Oct.)