Author: Erin Entrada Kelly
Illustrator: Isabel Roxas
Awards: Newberry
Grade level: 2nd-5th
This book is a great chapter book for students! It is a story told from multiple viewpoints and explains how 4 children become friends. It all begins when the neighborhood bully pulls a prank and throws on a young boy named Virgil by throwing his backpack down a well. Little did the bully know that Virgil's guinea pig was in the backpack as well. Virgil goes down the well to try and save his guinea pig and ends up getting trapped at the bottom of the well with his guinea pig. Virgil had previously talked to a psychic named Kaori about how he liked a deaf girl named Valencia, who also happened to visit Kaori. Kaori begins to worry when Virgil doesn't make his appointment, and she remembers she had told him to bring 5 stones to their next visit. Valencia has an appointment scheduled with Kaori, and Kaori discusses that she is worried about Virgil. Valencia agrees to help Kaori and Gen (Kaori's sister), but when she passes the well, she didn't realize that Virgil was supposed to collect 5 stones and when she sees them on the side of the well she tosses them back in and covers the well. After lots of searching, Valencia learns about the stones and realizes Virgil was in the well, and Kaori and Gen realize Valencia is the girl Virgil likes. In the end, the girl's rescue Virgil and all have a new found friendship.
I love this novel and will definitely have it in my classroom. It is a thick chapter book, but the font is large and the vocabulary is simple for younger students like 2nd graders to understand, but 5th graders will enjoy this book as well. I would use this book with older students and have them read it and discuss it in the class in a book club setting and give the students sheets of paper with ideas about what to discuss from the book.
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