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It is 1989, and Bobby, Joe, and Max are best friends enjoying their final months of sixth grade and their last summer before junior high. Bobby possesses a vivid imagination and lives in a world of constant make-believe. Joe is the rebel torn between childhood fun and his desire to grow up. Max is sensitive with a dramatic flare. The trio’s friendship is a complicated mix of competition and camaraderie. Their afterschool play and sleepovers consist of video games, action figures, and acting out scenarios from Bobby’s imagination. Despite their perpetual battle for one-upmanship, the boys’ time together frequently ends in fits of hilarity. But junior high tests the bonds of their friendship. While Bobby clings to the innocence of childhood, Joe and Max make new friends and try to reinvent themselves as cool. When a school project exposes Bobby’s struggles with growing up, he discovers sinister forces at work. Bobby soon realizes there are worse things than leaving childhood behind.
This book opens with a wonderfully ominous prologue that leaves the reader in a state of anticipation, although the carefully crafted suspense is a bit misleading. The majority of the book is an endearing coming-of-age story that perfectly captures growing up in the eighties. Referencing popular TV shows and movies as well as the political climate, fashion trends, and pop music of the time, the author creates a consummate portrayal of the decade’s cultural landscape. Just when readers begin to despair that perhaps they misunderstood the prologue’s foreshadowing, the book takes an unexpected twist into science fiction. Although the villains are a touch one-dimensional, Perone expertly establishes character depth and development for Bobby, Joe, and Max. Readers are drawn in by the beauty of childhood friendship and the pain of the friends’ divergent paths into young adulthood.
A 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award Category Finalist.