Those things appear in entry after entry. Oh, that yearning! I still have my middle school diary, and that’s the primary thing that leaps out from those pages: my desperation to fit in, to belong…and my constant nagging fear that I don’t. There are many wonderful, relatable threads woven into this book, but particularly poignant in the opening scenes is that adolescent yearning, even desperation, to fit in. 2019 Gr 5-8), is a heartwarming examination of megastars, goats, friendship, and finding your own best self.

Ali Benjamin’s sophomore novel, The Next Great Paulie Fink (Little, Brown, Apr. Plus, it’s not even a real school: it’s housed in a dilapidated old mansion, and her 10 classmates are obsessed with finding out what happened to their legendary classmate Paulie Fink, who, it appears, won’t be returning to school. She had-more or less-figured out how to navigate middle school before her mother accepted a job in Mitchell, VT, in “the middle of absolutely nowhere.” She’s angry about leaving her friends and angry about having to start over. She lives near Williamstown, Massachusetts.When Caitlyn Breen walks into her rural Vermont school on the first day of seventh grade, she doesn’t know what to expect. About the AuthorĪli Benjamin is a New York Times bestselling author and National Book Award Finalist for The Thing About Jellyfish, and the co-writer for HIV-positive teen Paige Rawl's coming-of-age memoir Positive as well as Tim Howard's national bestseller The Keeper. 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. With each challenge, Caitlyn struggles to understand a person she never met.but it's what she discovers about herself that most surprises her. Now he's disappeared, and Caitlyn finds herself leading a reality-show-style competition to find the school's next great Paulie Fink.

One thing's for sure, though: The kid was totally legendary. 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.ĭepending on whom you ask, Paulie was either a hilarious class clown, a relentless troublemaker, a hapless klutz, or an evil genius.

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.

The great paulie fink