RICK has been named one of Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade Books of the Year and the University of Pennsylvania (Alex’s alma mater!!) Graduate School of Education Best Books for Young Readers!
RICK has received starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly! Plus, this stellar review from Audiofile for the audiobook, read by Alex!
You can order a signed copy of RICK through Oblong Books (include any personalization in your comments) or use Indie Bound to find an independent bookstore near you. Audiobook read by the author is available through Libro.fm. RICK is additionally available at Apple Books, Google Play, Kobo, and Amazon!
The story of a kid named Rick who needs to explore his own identity apart from his jerk of a best friend.
Rick’s never questioned much. He’s gone along with his best friend Jeff even when Jeff’s acted like a bully and a jerk. He’s let his father joke with him about which hot girls he might want to date even though that kind of talk always makes him uncomfortable. And he hasn’t given his own i
dentity much thought, because everyone else around him seemed to have figured it out.
But now Rick’s gotten to middle school, and new doors are opening. One of them leads to the school’s Rainbow Spectrum club, where kids of many genders and identities congregate, including Melissa, the girl who sits in front of Rick in class and seems to have her life together. Rick wants his own life to be that … understood. Even if it means breaking some old friendships and making some new ones.
As they did in their groundbreaking novel Melissa’s Story (a.k.a. George), in Rick, award-winning author Alex Gino explores what it means to search for your own place in the world … and all the steps you and the people around you need to take in order to get where you need to be.
Published by Scholastic Press April 2020. Edited by David Levithan.
Read what Alex thinks of the cover at Nerdy Book Club. Thanks to them for the exclusive reveal!
Note: This is a companion book to Melissa, but not a sequel. Melissa is a character in this book, but her life is going too well for there to be enough plot and/or struggle to write another book about her right now. This story is focused on Rick, who you might remember as best friends with Jeff, Melissa’s bully. It’s time for Rick to come into his own.