Young Readers Will Cheer For Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth

Jeff Anderson does, both the good and the bad, and he’s sharing those memories in his savvy and uproarious new book, Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth.
We meet sixth grader Zack as he is headed into an anti-bullying assembly. Right away, we feel Zack’s physical awkwardness with his description of his “too-long, grow-into-them-soon khaki pants” and his Harry Potter glasses. We get a sense of his desire to blend into the crowd, unnoticed and therefore untargeted, as he finds a seat closest to the gym wall. “Walls never kick you or insult your clothes, and they always support you,” he says. That middle school feeling of being suspended between kid and teen continues with the description of the anti-bullying assembly, an affair that involves the (Toot! Toot!) Goodfriend Express and its over-the-top-cheesy conductor Ima Goodfriend.
I’ll wait while you finish cringing.
Still, who says these assemblies don’t work? Spurred by the anti-bullying call to action, Zack soon finds himself standing up for a classmate teased by the sixth grade’s most notorious bully, Jose (otherwise known as El Pollo Loco). Unfortunately, things don’t turn out quite like Ima Goodfriend said they would. Rather than his classmates joining him in a glorious show of support, Zack simply becomes Jose’s new target. Worse yet, a well-intentioned teacher seeks to solve the boys’ conflict by making Zack and Jose co-chairs of the sixth grade fundraiser. Now the boys have one week to organize the sixth grade class to sell enough Nation’s Best Chocolate Bars so that they can, for the first time in school history, attend the seventh-and-eighth grade dance.
At first, everything goes according to plan, even though Zack is the one doing all the work. But then things start to unravel. There are missing chocolate bars. And a failed intervention. And a plan. And a bully even bigger than Jose. Fortunately, let’s just say it all works out and there is a dance. (Although no middle school dance is as picture-perfect as its attendees might dream of.)
Author Jeff Anderson is a former elementary and middle school teacher, and it shows. His account of the middle school environment is equal parts funny, and cringe-inducing. As adults, we can look back on that time and know we survived; students in the midst of those tumultuous years will be able to pick up this book and find a reflection of themselves, with a dash of humor thrown in to keep the reading light and fast-paced. It’s not all fun and games, though. In addition to the theme of bullying, there’s a subplot regarding Zack’s adjustment to his parents’ recent divorce. Living with one parent one week, and the other parent the next, their homes being in two very different neighborhoods, Zack must adjust to a new reality outside of school as well.
With a believable adolescent voice, and a quickly-moving plot, Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth is a book for the middle grade reader who wants to stand up for what’s right and be accepted and understood.
Zack Delacruz: Me and My Big Mouth hit stores on August 4.