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When online bullying crosses over into real life, Eric and his friends do their best to stay out of the cloud of meanness, but it’s a big one.

When cellphones are banned from Branton Middle School, the student population is thrown into a frenzy, which only increases when kids find a new way of communicating throughout the day—Post-it notes. It turns out, the Post-it notes can be even crueler than social media updates, and everyone is affected, including Eric (known as Frost due to a poetry contest won in fifth grade) and his friends. Perhaps no one is more affected than Rose, a large, white new girl who clicks well with Frost’s crew—all also white, save Indian-American Deedee. In fact, she turns out to be the catalyst for positive change the school really needs. Bursting with authentic challenges and solutions both familiar and revolutionary to any kid enduring middle school, this book manages the difficult feat of providing an anti-bullying message without alienating or boring the population that message is for. The characters, both adult and teen, are vivid, flawed, and approachable. Anderson dives into the world of middle school with a clear sense of how it works and what it needs.

Kids, and the rest of the world, need more books like this one.