Sasha is an anxious seventh grader. His parents send him to upstate New York to spend a summer month with his Aunt Ruth, recently widowed. Sasha does not escape his problems or his anxiety, which he calls the gray. He does learn to get back on the horse, literally, as he makes two new and unexpected friends and begins to accept that anxiety is part of his life and he can redirect those feelings.

I really liked this book. I was a bit hard for me to get into at first, but the more I read the more interested I was.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

Intriguing plot line and likeable characters. This book will be such a comforting and helpful resource for learning about and understanding anxiety and ways to deal with anxiety.

I thought this was a very realistic portrayal of anxiety. The main character has obviously been battling this for a while and is in a rut. I love that he's able to get away from the city and unplug for a while to help reset. I also loved the side story with Eli (may have wrong name) and the guilt he feels over his little brother, and the way the bullying is tied up in everything. Great middle grade read.

I love this book! Will recomend to many of my students. I particularly enjoyed how the author made all the characters symapthetic and compelling and how even bullies have back stories. Will buy for my classroom and share with many students. I think the anxiety charactersitic will be a mirror for many, but invite students to learn about Judiasm and people unlike themselves.

I think I love this book for a classroom read aloud. With growing numbers of kids wrestling with anxiety and stress, I love how vividly the author describes the character's experience in an anxiety attack. I think kids who don't deal with the problems will be able to be more supportive of their friends when they understand better. Classroom read alouds or adult/child book groups provide such great space for kids to talk about their connections to this book. In addition, the storyline is enjoyable and the characters are lovely and complicated. Will definitely be (and already are) sharing this book.

Hmm. The use of horses as a method for a struggling character to reconnect with the world is certainly nothing new. In fact, I'd say many of the plot elements here are fairly standard. The way they are combined is unique. It feels a little bit like the book is hesitant to commit, though. It introduces a character one way and almost immediately shows us an opposite side. Or we hear an opinion and very shortly get contradictory information. While this plays into the idea of The Gray as having multiple meanings, the blurriness doesn't make for very compelling reading.

A winning and emotional story about a young boy dealing with anxiety. This will fit well into mainstream libraries as well as discussions about the current rise in depression and anxiety about pre and early teens. Recommended reading also for parents with children going through similar issues.

This one took me awhile to read because of the slowness and introspective topic but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I appreciate how the author took the time to build the story and take the reader into Sasha's brain and how it works.

I'm not sure my students will have the stamina to finish a book like this, with its long descriptions and introspective language. I do, however, appreciate what this book adds to the middle grade canon.

Any time I see the author Chris Baron on the title, I know that I am in store for amazing character development. This story did not disappoint. I think it is going to speak to so many students that struggle with their own battles with mental health,

Chris Baron packs a lot of meaningful themes and topics into this hopeful, complex story about mental health, abuse, death, Jewish wisdom, friendship, bullying, and family. Sasha is a Jewish boy with severe anxiety he calls the Gray. He’s sent to his aunt’s for the summer. There, Sasha is bullied by a group of small-town kids. He asks the town’s outcast, a kid named Eli, to be his bodyguard. As Sasha practices his strategies for the Gray and spends time with Eli and Ivy, he soaks in the stories his aunt tells him, particularly about the smallest drop of water changing a large stone. Just when he learns what happened to Eli’s brother and bravely tries horseback riding with help from Eli, Eli and his horse disappear. Sasha risks everything to search on horseback, knowing that the Gray will make it next to impossible. Ultimately, this is a hopeful, complicated story about Sasha learning to accept who he is. As Sasha takes small steps– that add up to small and big moments of courage–you can’t help but cheer him on. And if you’re like me, you’ll greatly appreciate Baron normalizing anxiety, taking medication, and using grounding strategies like 5-4-3-2-1.

While I found some parts if the story dragged or came off as repetitive, I found a lot of value in this book for middle grade readers. The main character, Sasha, deals with anxiety. He learns coping mechanisms and also discovers that others deal with similar anxiety problems. I think kids could really relate to this book and feel less alone in their anxiety.

I’m so excited to FINALLY get to read a book by Chris Baron. I’ve heard so many positive things, and I actually think I have his other books, but this is the first I’ve read.

From the beginning, I definitely felt pulled into Sasha’s story and his anxiety symptoms. Some members of his family are super supportive, and he has a friend who has his back. But he has other relationships that are really challenging.

I loved the descriptions of his aunt’s home and property and the surrounding area. It sounded so green and peaceful (except for the ghosts!) and I loved the relationships he formed with other kids.

For Sasha, his anxiety manifests in kind of a physical way– in which his vision goes gray and foggy. Those descriptions made what he experienced so tangible. I liked that it kind of threw a veil between him and what was happening around him and made it clear what happened as he surfaced from that space.

I also loved the connection between him and his uncle. Even though he’d passed away, his memories of his uncle and the stories he shared helped Sasha see himself in a new, more positive way. They helped him feel less alone, too. So cool.

All in all, this is definitely a book I’d recommend not only for kids with anxiety but for anyone who’s felt alone or gone through painful changes in friendships.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions my own.

Truly fantastic portrayal of a boy learning to cope with his own anxiety, while discovering his strengths and making connections with both nature and people. I love the way each character's story unfolds slowly, building empathy even for those who behave badly. Also a great reminder to put down our devices and experience nature. This is a story of courage, of kindness, and community, beautifully written and highly relatable. Recommended for grades 4-8.

This was a beautifully written story of coping with anxiety, friendship, and finding strength you didn't know you had.

Sasha has had a rough year in middle school between ex-friends, bullies, and his growing anxiety, which he calls The Gray. His therapist and family decide that a summer in the country with his aunt, away from technology, might just help him to calm his senses and the anxiousness that plagues him. Sasha is reluctant, but having no choice, he goes along with it. The summer that follows is filled with struggle, mystery, new friends, and horses.

Sasha was a very engaging, believable protagonist, and I was rooting for him the whole way. I also loved his new friends, Eli and Ivy. They were well-written and interesting, and I was invested in their stories, as well. I also appreciated the way the magic of nature was woven throughout the story. It was truly a special book, one I could have used as a preteen. Definitely recommend!

This book is a book about childhood anxiety. It is wonderful in that it enables readers, who need, to identify with characters who experience extreme anxiety. The author excellently gives windows into the ways in which anxiety can present itself and ways that it can be managed, At the same time, the author offers readers who have never experienced anxiety personally, to see the many different ways that anxiety may show itself.

This book is about a 13 year old male character who experiences severe anxiety. He uses technology/game playing as his safe place. He is not a stranger to bullying. Due to his extreme anxiety, his doctor recommends that he stop with technology for a while. To enable Sasha, the main character to be in an environment where there is quite sketchy internet service, causing, quite organically, difficulty in gaming, Sasha is sent to live with his aunt. His aunt lives in a rural area with very sketchy internet. Although, Sasha, thought that this idea was the worst idea, his experiences turned out life altering in many different ways for himself and the friends that he made..

This is a wonderful book that uses the story of the Jewish Rabbi Akiva as a mirror into how ones self determination can lead to self growth.

After 13-year-old Sasha accidentally hurts someone while defending himself against school bullies and his therapist suggests that his video-game habit is exacerbating his anxiety, Sasha reluctantly agrees to a monthlong summer visit with Aunt Ruthie in upstate New York.

Ruthie lives near the shuttered, overgrown Jewish summer camp she operated with her husband, Sasha’s beloved Uncle Lou, who died two years earlier. The wifi isn’t reliable, but Sasha finds plenty of other interesting things to fill his days. Along with the supposedly haunted camp to explore, there’s a vast forest for wandering, a cow-dotted pasture (with one scary bull for evading), a lake for fishing, a pond for frog-catching and, within walking distance, a town for ice cream and martial arts lessons. There are new friends to get to know, including a stable of horses at a nearby ranch.

But, no matter where you go, there seem to be folks eager to belittle anyone perceived as a little different. So, there also are bullies.

“The gray” is the thing that’s a bit different about Sasha. It’s the place he goes—or that takes him?—during his frequent and serious panic attacks. This is a sensitive and realistic portrait of serious adolescent anxiety. Sasha does his best to deal with it—remembering most of the time to take his new medicine and practicing the breathing and grounding techniques he’s learned in therapy. The scenes in the gray are visceral and even a bit frightening...but they’re also ethereal and magical, especially as Sasha—with help from Ruthie and his new friends—begins to understand that there are lots of folks like him, who are sensitive enough to perceive, as Uncle Lou used to call it, “worlds within worlds.” Could Sasha’s anxiety also be a gift?

Sasha’s new appreciation for the natural world, his unexpected love for the horses, and his growing relationships with new friends and enemies filled my heart and made me eager to get outside.

Disclaimer: I only review books that I finished and enjoyed. I received a free Advanced Readers Copy of this book from the publisher for my unbiased opinion.

Chris Baron has done it again! He has written a deeply moving story about characters who tug at reader's heartstrings. Sasha, the protagonist, is one many our middle grade readers can connect with. Life is full of twists, turns, and unknowns. He falls into the Gray, a place where he can disappear into. His anxiety causes many life changes, and slowly he begins to open himself up to these changes. Readers meet Eli, Ivy, and other characters who struggle with friendship, their past, and learning to cope in uncertainty. This book is perfect for educators seeking some books to support the social emotional learning of our students. Even though Baron has so eloquently descried the Gray, as a reader I am left feeling hopeful knowing despite the heavy feelings our characters have everything is going to be ok with the power of family, friendship, and community. Thank you to Net Galley for the early read!

Chris Baron's The Gray was a really powerful story of finding your place in the world. I really love how Chris weaves nature into his stories-I was ready to go to a pond or ride a horse!