As the school year begins, Caitlyn enters the seventh grade classroom in her new small town to applause. It turns out her classmates were hoping she was Paulie Fink, whose reputation for flaunting the rules and making every day interesting grows throughout a fall in which he’s a no-show. When the kids decide to hold a reality-TV-inspired competition to decide who will carry on Paulie’s legacy, Caitlyn agrees to judge the search for “The Next Great Paulie Fink,” even though she’s beginning to wonder if any of them really knew Paulie as a friend. Yet the legend of Paulie is no stranger than anything else at the school, which is housed in an old mansion, keeps goats, and gives teachers leave to be creative. Most unusual of all? The kids genuinely like one another, not a clique or bully in sight. This isn’t, Caitlyn tells them, the real world. As someone who made another girl’s life miserable at her old school, she should know. Paulie’s reputation notwithstanding, Caitlyn, who is white, discovers reality is what you chose to make it, and daring to care makes all the difference in a story full of humor and moments of poignancy, featuring characters both entertaining and insightful. (Ages 9–12)

In this acclaimed novel by the author of the award-winning, bestselling The Thing About Jellyfish, being the new kid at school isn't easy, especially when you have to follow in the footsteps of a legendary classroom prankster.

When Caitlyn Breen begins her disorienting new life at Mitchell School--where the students take care of real live goats and study long-dead philosophers, and where there are only ten other students in the entire seventh grade--it seems like nobody can stop talking about some kid named Paulie Fink.

Depending on whom you ask, Paulie was either a hilarious class clown, a relentless troublemaker, a hapless klutz, or an evil genius. One thing's for sure, though: The kid was totally legendary. Now he's disappeared, and Caitlyn finds herself leading a reality-show-style competition to find the school's next great Paulie Fink. With each challenge, Caitlyn struggles to understand a person she never met...but it's what she discovers about herself that most surprises her.

Told in multiple voices, interviews, and documents,this funny, thought-provoking novel from the bestselling author of The Thing About Jellyfish is a memorable exploration of what makes a hero--and if anyone, or anything, is truly what it seems.