A young girl moves to a small town and brings a new perspective to the kids of Fawn Creek. Written from multiple perspectives, you see into the intricate minds of middle schoolers.

Writing: 4/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 5/5
A group of 7th graders in small town Fawn Creek, Lousiana, provide the setting for this story of friendship, family, and finding your own place in the world. Orchid Mason enters the 7th grade classroom in Fawn Creek, Louisiana — the other twelve students have known each other since birth. The students are spellbound as she talks about all the places she has been — New York, Paris, Thailand. But she doesn’t abuse her new found popularity — in fact, Orchid is nice, and inclusive, and happy to befriend anyone. And she makes a really great friend, helping to bring out the best in those she meets. However, some people are just not pleased with the situation, and when they find out something surprising about her past, they threaten to undo everything good that has come to be.

Good characters, good writing, and a somewhat fanciful, but positive, plot from this Newberry Award winning author.

Those Kids from Fawn Creek needs to make it onto every middle-grades bookshelf. Erin Entrada Kelly captures the messy life of tweens beautifully. Told from the different perspectives of each Fawn Creek seventh grader, it would make a powerful read aloud.

A quiet book focusing on the shifting friendships of a small class, Erin Entrada Kelly once again proves herself a master at conveying small moments and emotions. Highly recommended.

Erin Entrada Kelly has done it again! From the first chapter I was immersed in Fawn Creek. I fell in love with the new student Orchid and loved watching her make the other seventh-grade students question the truths they thought they had always know about themselves and their classmates.

Another masterpiece from Erin Entrada Kelly. She weaves together all the normal clicks that middle schools have both big and small. Throw in the new kid and a little mystery, what can grow wrong. Amazing story

This is a must purchase for my middle school library. Written from multiple perspectives, the reader really gets to know each character well. From family problems to friend problems to school problems, this book realistically portrays the lives of middle schoolers. In Fawn Creek there are only twelve seventh graders. Growing up, changing, being true to yourself , being a bully, being kind, being the new girl, it all happens in the microcosm of “Yawn” Creek. As usual, Erin Entrada Kelly gets it right. My urban students will enjoy this. They will see an unfamiliar setting with familiar problems. I can’t wait to get it into their hands.

Thanks to NetGalley and GreenWillow Books for the chance to read this arc in exchange for an honest review.

In many ways, <i>Those Kids from Fawn Creek</i> is a modern update of Eleanor Estes' classic children's book <i>The Hundred Dresses</i>. It tackles a few more issues, such as Grayson's love of fashion and how he's shamed by his father and older brother for being insufficiently masculine by their measure, but at its heart it's about the same things as Estes' work: the need to dream about being someone (or somewhere) different and how we need to stand up against the bullies of the world when they try to tell us that there's something wrong with those things.

Like all good middle grade novels, Kelly's book is enjoyable whether you're just learning the lessons the characters are or whether you learned them seventy years ago. Seeing Janie realize (almost too late) that people like Renni aren't real friends and observing Orchid's manic pixie dream girl act are familiar no matter when you first noticed people doing these things, and Kelly writes with an intelligence that keeps the story from feeling like a "very special episode" sort of story, even though it is very much imparting a lesson or two. It's a little bittersweet towards the end, but also just a genuinely good book that has a very human core - even if we have to acknowledge that being human isn't always the easiest thing or done particularly well by all of us all the time.

Solid middle grade book that deals with the usual themes of identity, bullies, being yourself, found family, and community. The story is told from multiple perspectives which can be a challenging approach to narration, but Entrada Kelly pulls it off well. LGBTQIA2S+ content is included, but never fully explored. The town bully is particularly, almost unrealistically horrible (or at least I hope she's unrealistic and no children have ever had to deal with someone like this). I can't speak to how accurate a depiction it is of a tiny town, but it felt real to this outsider.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-ARC of this middle grade novel.

There are very few contemporary middle grade novels that are set in such a small town and school. This one does a nice job showing some of the challenges of spending your whole life with the same people, while still being entirely relatable to kids in bigger schools and districts. I enjoyed this title and think it will be popular with middle grade readers.

Fawn Creek is a small town where everyone knows everyone and nothing really happens....thus the nickname Yawn Creek. And then Orchid Mason arrives. She's the new kid with an exotic life and plenty of confidence and ideas. Shy, insecure Dorothy and her best friend Greyson are smitten with Orchid and her tales of travel and romance but not everyone in their close-knit class is as welcoming and accepting. I loved how real and honest this story felt. Making friends and being accepted is hard for kids and Erin Kelly portrays that struggle beautifully through the lives of Orchid, Dorothy and Greyson. Great book to share with a class to built community and foster acceptance. Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This was SUCH an amazing read! Every one of the characters were so carefully crafted to be individuals that, if Erin Entrada Kelly wrote a novella about each one, I'd read them. Not only that, but the mystery of Orchid in the first half of the story kept me turning pages to find out what was really going on with her. The end of the novel wasn't surprising, but it was well-written and satisfying. Also, there were so many lessons embedded in the end of the book that that this would be a great novel to teach with middle schoolers. I can't wait for this book to come out so that I can add it to my classroom library!

What a powerful, strong, moving story … about kids from a small, quiet town where everyone knows everyone, and each person fits into a neat little square… until one day, Orchid shows up… and nothing is the same. Her kindness, originality, flair… ability to reach out to everyone and find the right words to say… but not everyone is happy with that. This book weaves their individual stories into a masterfully presented quilt, full of richness and authenticity. Erin Entrada Kelly does it again …

I love this author and her books. This was another winner in my opinion. The author really seems to have middle school personalities down to a tee. Everyone who reads this will be able to relate to one of the characters. This book has the potential to change people. Whether it is to help someone understand how important and freeing is to be yourself, or to be kind and seeing how kindness affects others or teaching people to stand up to bullies. Great story. I will be buying this for my library.

Oh how I loved this book! What a mystery for the first half of the book and what a great lesson for the second. Besides being a “read in one sitting
/can’t put it down book” there are so many wonderful teacher-happy elements to this book also such as reinforcing the differences between similes and metaphors.

An interesting middle grade book about identity, bullying, standing up for yourself and friendship. When Orchid Mason moves to Fawn Creek (AKA Yawn Creek), the enters a 7th grade class with 12 kids who've known each other forever and have all their little groups set. Her presence causes some of them to question the way things have always been. Wasn't thrilled with the ending, seemed abrupt and unfinished. Would be interested in a follow-up.

When Orchid moves to Fawn Creek,where no one ever moves, kids start talking. Who is she? Where did she come from? Why does she have a flower in her hair? Orchid befriends two of the quietest kids who were already friends, Greyson and Dorothy. Orchid tells them all f the great places she’s lived: Paris and New York and cool things she’s done. Soon, all three become friends and are eating lunch outside. Of course, the popular girls still have questions about Orchid. They tell mean girl Renni, who moved away last year, but is still close by. Eventually, everyone finds out that all is not what Orchid has told them. The reactions from some students cause shock and anger, but many support Orchid. Now what?

When I saw this on Net Galley, I snatched it up and put it on the top of my TBR pile. I am a huge EEK fan, and, as it turns out, this is one of her best books yet.

This book is written from the multiple perspectives of the seventh graders of Fawn Creek--every single one of them--who number only about a dozen. EEK gets middle schoolers like few other authors. Even though all the characters live in a tiny town that hardly anyone ever escapes, each is lovingly portrayed as a fascinating, authentic, and unique individual. It's a quiet, simple story, centered around the arrival of a new girl who seems exciting and mysterious but is also remarkably kind. EEK excels at realistic stories that explore the complex feelings of tweens negotiating their conflicting desires to fit in and stand out, to be exactly like everyone else but also like no one else. This should be a staple at every middle school, and would make an excellent read-aloud.