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INTERMEDIATE FICTION
Nickerson, Sara

Last Meeting of the Gorilla Club

293 pp. | Dutton | August, 2019 | Trade ISBN 978-1-101-99442-9 $16.99
(2) 4-6 Beginning fifth grade at a new school is a chance for a fresh start for eleven-year-old Josh Duncan. In his old school, he had whispered to imaginary friends and made himself "invisible" (by walking close to walls, etc.). But his new school has already been in session for three weeks when Josh arrives, so once again, he's an outsider. What's more, his imaginary friend Big Brother has followed him, and now Josh also starts seeing a ghost-like girl with sparkly clothes and different-colored shoes whom no one else seems to notice except his classmate Lucas Hernandez. (Josh and Lucas are the only two who could see the gorilla in a video their teacher had shown them about human perception and how "the world is full of invisibles.") Maxie Moon, the sparkly girl, uses Lucas to lure Josh to a meeting of the "gorilla club" in the spooky house in the woods where she died years ago, a death for which Lucas feels responsible. Chapters alternate between Josh's and Lucas's perspectives, and tensions rise through Nickerson's deft prose, which capably renders invisibles and ghosts along with the human aches of loneliness and guilt. In a fiery resolution, Lucas has a chance to lay his guilt to rest, and Josh finds a future that includes hope. A ghost story with real substance.
Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020

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