Welcome Back, Maple Mehta-Cohen

Gr 4-7–Maple Mehta-Cohen has a secret, and she has worked hard to make sure no one finds out. Maple loves to tell, and spends much of her time dictating, her stories about her half-Indian, half-Jewish sleuth into her recorder. But despite her storytelling ability and expansive vocabulary, Maple doesn’t know how to read. Her teacher thought it best for Maple to repeat fifth grade so that she can get help with reading. But Maple is not sure about this plan. It means leaving her two best friends, Aislinn and Marigold, and having everyone wonder why she is still in fifth grade. When the school year starts, things aren’t better. Maple’s teacher asks her to help new kid Jack learn his way around the school, plus she must go to Ms. Fine’s group—the one that is for students who can’t read. When Jack asks why Maple is still in fifth grade, the lies start, and Maple isn’t sure she can stop. She is caught telling stories to her new friends in her reading group, trying to keep her old friends who don’t seem to want to spend time with a fifth-grader, and staying true to herself. Though poignant, with so many different things happening, the novel doesn’t really get to the depth of Maple’s reading struggles, or her issues with friends, leaving the ending feeling unresolved.