JELLY ROLL

A girl forced together with a long-standing bully refuses to let him see her cry.

Jenny is excited to attend a weeklong leadership camp for eighth and ninth graders. As their culminating project, each group of four campers will present a “locally grown” stall at a farmers market. Jenny is intrigued by the theme since cooking is a passion of hers, bolstered by her father’s food-truck business. She feels “it would be too easy to make fun of the big girl who feels most at home in the kitchen,” so she keeps her love secret despite her healthy embrace of her size. When Jenny’s about to board the camp bus, she discovers that the boy who makes her life difficult at school, Austin, is also attending the camp. Years ago, he coined a rude nickname for her and continues to ridicule her. When it’s revealed that Austin is also in her project group, Jenny fears this week will be both miserable and fruitless. The narration makes clear the emotional and physical results of bullying, for both the targeted victims and those within the sphere of influence. Working within a low page count, Joyce deftly endows each character (presumed white) with a rich inner life, even Austin. As with other Orca Current titles, it requires only low-level mastery to decode, so struggling readers can easily access the mindful, satisfying tale.

A sweet success.