THIS IS WHAT I DID:

Traumatized by an event that wrecked both him and his best friend, eighth-grader Logan moves with his family to a new town and a new school, where his parents make the mistake of revealing their shady past to their new neighbors. Soon, rumors fly all over the town and in school that Logan is a rapist, and he becomes the victim of vicious bullying. Needless to say, Logan is much too lovable to be a rapist, and the only person he can turn to is Laurel, a quirky girl his own age who’s obsessed with palindromes. Logan’s mumbling, realistic, terse and to-the-point narration will help teen readers overlook the over-baked, near-problem-novel format of the plot. It’s Logan’s relationships—both the good and the bad—that are the most appealingly complex, and Ellis finds unique opportunities—the theatre, palindromes, Boy Scouts—in the plot for these connections to meld or explode. But the truth feels blunt and anti-climactic when it’s finally revealed: The audience already knows Logan is well on his way to recovery. (Fiction. YA)