It's The End of the World and I'm In My Bathing Suit

by Justin A. Reynolds

Overview

A hilarious new middle-grade from Justin A. Reynolds that asks: What happens when five unsupervised kids face the apocalypse under outrageously silly circumstances?

Twelve-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway has concocted his most genius plan ever to avoid chores . . . especially the dreaded L-A-U-N-D-R-Y. If he can wears every item of clothing in his wardrobe, summer will be halfway over before he has to do laundry!

On the day of the highly anticipated Beach Bash, Eddie ends up grounded until he can get his clothes clean. While left home alone to do his laundry, the power goes out mid-cycle. With his first load of laundry soaking wet and the rest still filthy, Eddie sets out to explore the seemingly empty neighborhood in just his swim trunks and flip-flops.

As he meets up with other neighborhood kids to find out what happened, they realize that their families aren't coming back anytime soon. And as night falls, the crew realizes they aren't just the only people left in the neighborhood — they might be the only people left . . . anywhere.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781338740226
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	60,532
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Justin A. Reynolds has always wanted to be a writer. Opposite of Always, his debut novel, was an Indies Introduce selection, a School Library Journal Best Book, has been translated in 17 languages, and is being developed for film with Paramount Players. He hangs out in northeast Ohio with his family and likes it, and is probably somewhere, right now, dancing terribly. His second novel, Early Departures, published September 2020. You can find him at justinareynolds.com.

Editorial Reviews

05/02/2022

It’s been 40 days since the last day of school, and 12-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway, diagnosed with ADHD, is proud of the plan he’s hatched: to avoid doing laundry, he will simply wear everything in his closet until he has nothing left. When his mother uncovers his mountain of unwashed garments, though, Eddie is immediately grounded and must clean his clothes while his parents attend their Ohio town’s annual Lake Erie Beach Bash without him. Then the power suddenly goes out throughout the neighborhood, and Eddie, joined by a ragtag group of kids who were also left behind, decides that if they can’t go to the party, they’ll make their own fun. But once night falls and their parents don’t return from the Beach Bash, the group worries they might have to survive on their own. While the conclusion feels abrupt, Reynolds’s animated prose and eclectic characters propel this quirky summer adventure. Eddie’s community is predominantly Black. Ages 8–12. Agent: Beth Phelan, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for It's the End of the World and I'm In My Bathing Suit:

* "A doomsday scenario is rendered surprisingly funny here . . . and so readers are given freedom to enjoy [Eddie's] brilliant quips, his quirky friends, and this highly unusual day without dwelling on what comes after this trange, golden afternoon when kids ran the neighborhood." — BCCB, starred review

"With Reynolds' signature witticisms and jump-off-the-page jokes....[this is] equal parts friendship story, coming of age, and comedic apocalypse, this will be a great red for reluctant readers and kids looking to take their summers into their own hands." — Booklist

"Matter-of-fact scenes with Eddie taking his ADHD medicine and talking through school and home pressures with Trey, their school’s all-star athlete, offer insightful representations of Black boys bonding." — Kirkus

From the Publisher

01/20/2023

Gr 4–7—Having worn every piece of clothing he owns, Eddie Holloway, a 12-year-old Black boy in Ohio, is stuck at home doing laundry in his swim trunks instead of accompanying his family to the town's annual Beach Bash. While an unlikely scenario, his plans are foiled when the neighborhood loses power. Eddie and the four other kids left behind must figure out how to survive when the rest of the community mysteriously disappears. Told from a first-person perspective, the narration has lengthy asides that interrupt the pacing and flow of the story. Heavy on personality, this book is light on plot and has an unsatisfying ending, though it is clearly set up for a sequel. Glimmers of depth come through in Eddie's feelings about dealing with his father's loss, mother's remarrying, and attitudes about his ADHD and therapy. VERDICT Recommended for purchase only where there are gaps in humorous middle grade offerings, especially with BIPOC leads.—Monisha Blair

School Library Journal

2022-03-02
Epic end-of-summer plans go awry for five kids in Ohio.

Twelve-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway is ready to have a blast at Beach Bash with his friends—it’s the day when everyone in town heads to Lake Erie for great food and live music. However, when his mom unearths the mountain of smelly laundry that he’s ignored for the entire summer, Eddie is left home in a literal funk, with nothing to wear but his glow-in-the-dark pineapple swim trunks. After a power outage, Eddie links up with four other left-behind kids, and they all enjoy fun times until the streetlights come on—but none of their families return from the party. The kids take action to prepare for whatever is happening in their new world without parents, gathering necessities from their neighbors’ empty houses and trying to keep each other’s spirits up with dad jokes and teasing, except in the truly gentle spaces where they admit their fears to each other. Ultimately, the buildup to the to-be-continued ending doesn’t quite deliver. Long-winded digressions interrupt the flow of the storytelling, and it takes almost half the book to get to the zany situations that provide most of the laughs. Matter-of-fact scenes with Eddie taking his ADHD medicine and talking through school and home pressures with Trey, their school’s all-star athlete, offer insightful representations of Black boys bonding on different emotional levels. All main characters read as Black.

An unevenly paced celebration of wacky summer adventures. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews