THE RIPPLE EFFECT

A small-town tween dreams of leaving her mark before moving on to middle school.

Italian American Marzella Trudi lives in Kettleby, a former mill town in the Northeast, where her mom runs the family ice cream shop, Trudi Treats. But Nan died, Pops’ dementia is getting worse, and the shop might be in trouble. Zella also worries about being “left out and left behind”; her best friends, Janea and Bowie, have their interests in fashion and music, respectively, and class clown Zella feels pressure to leave her own mark by coming up with the best sixth grade prank ever. When she does come up with a great idea, a mishap leads to disaster. Given a second chance, Zella redeems herself through what she dubs the Ripple Effect: performing acts of kindness and challenging others to pay them forward, thus having an exponential effect on Kettleby and its residents. Zella is the central narrator, but Janea, Bowie, fifth grade journalist Shelby, new kid Declan, and others each have several brief chapters, offering readers insights into their own struggles, such as Bowie’s parents’ divorce and Declan’s sister’s health concerns. The takeaway message—“kindness is its own sort of magic”—is reminiscent of Kelly Barnhill’s The Ogress and the Orphans, and though Zella’s story doesn’t have the same mythic heft, a touch of something inexplicable and joyful brightens the tale. The cover art points to some racial diversity among the supporting cast.

An uplifting story of personal and community transformation.