THE GRAY

A 13-year-old boy learns to cope with anxiety serious enough that it sends him to a place he calls the Gray.

Sasha’s parents and doctor think his obsession with video games is exacerbating his mental health issues, so they send him to spend a month with his Aunt Ruthie in upstate New York, where Sasha’s aunt and uncle used to run a Jewish summer camp. Now Uncle Lou is dead, and the grounds of Camp Akiva sit empty and abandoned. Sasha tries hard to lean in to new experiences like riding a horse and learning martial arts. After being persistently bullied by one of the neighborhood kids, he asks Eli, another troubled boy, to be his bodyguard, leading to a tentative friendship and the recognition that Eli is suffering too. There’s a side plot with a horse called the Gray that is a bit unclear in its purpose. Many plot elements are clunky in execution, and some of the characters feel flat or contrived. However, the central idea—that, since water can slowly change a rock, any person on Earth can also change, a concept connected to Uncle Lou’s beloved story from the Talmud about Akiva and the Stone—is one of enormous importance. Baron also gets props for his sympathetic and evenhanded depiction of anxiety and the many different ways to treat it, from in-the-minute breathing exercises to appropriate medication.

Important and worthy despite some flaws in the storytelling.