SPELLING IT OUT

As a Southern California sixth grader studies to become a spelling champ, he becomes intimately familiar with powerful words like persist, prejudice, and dementia.

Ben Bellini enjoys spelling, but in 1985, surrounded by tough-guy movie images of Rambo, he’s concerned that spelling’s not something men do. Then Nan invites him to spend the summer with her in San Francisco to train with Roger Nott, a Scripps National Spelling Bee–winning coach. He can’t say no! Roger turns out to be a bully, but San Francisco is great—especially the public library, where Sicilian American Ben meets Indian American Asha Krishnakumar. When she’s not playing basketball, she’s preparing for the spelling bee, too, and she shares her motto with Ben: “Persist, persist, persist.” Ben is a nuanced character with keen observational skills. He realizes that many people keep going in the face of discouragement and prejudice—Asha has faced racism in basketball, Nan experienced sexism working as an architect, and Nan’s Japanese American friend spent World War II in an incarceration camp. Inspired by their examples, Ben stops perceiving himself as lacking in “talent or confidence”—and stands up to Roger. Ben’s biggest challenge, however, is admitting that Nan’s memory lapses may be dementia. In his well-drawn character arc, Ben shoulders responsibilities beyond his years to help Nan: His growth signals the champion he’s becoming in his personal life. Chapters open with vocabulary words and their definitions.

A thoughtful coming-of-age story.