The new kid brings a bright new spark to an old town in Pashley’s middle-grade novel.

Seventh grader and inventor Mindy Bright may have roots in Oglesby, Illinois, the rural town where her father grew up and her late grandmother lived, but she feels like a stranger when she moves in. The most alien thing about her new home is the school, Korn Wotel, which is housed in an old motel that was repurposed after the original school burned down 40 years ago. Mindy has trouble fitting in at first, when a classmate named Derek puts gum in her hair on the school bus. She quickly becomes the target of gentle mockery from the other students. She in turn judges them for their faded clothing and country ways. (“She felt like the shiny new screw in a jar of rusty old nails.”) As she tries to navigate this new social scene, Mindy is paired up with a boy named Charlie to create a booth for the school’s annual fall carnival. The carnival is the school’s main fundraiser, and boy, does the Korn Wotel need it: They’re barely able to keep the lights on, much less make necessary repairs and improvements. Mindy is excited to put her engineering skills to the test but keeps stumbling in her relationship with Charlie until it feels like she’s ruined their burgeoning friendship. She has to put all her skills to the test—both social and STEM—to save her partnership and her school at the carnival. Pashley’s debut will have readers rooting for Mindy even as they wince at her mistakes. Mindy is both eager and fallible, and thus relatable as she works out where she belongs in the long term. The narrative is evenly paced with pleasant surprises, such as Mindy’s classmates’ friendliness and the appearances of quirky characters like Ms. Caster and Locker Boy. Pashley seamlessly integrates Mindy’s STEM projects so that they appear as part of the overall fabric of her life, making for easy inspiration for scientific-minded readers.

A well-rounded novel about the importance of home that will have young readers excited about STEM.