By Alex Gino
Starting middle school, Rick notices he's never had a crush, and joins a club that helps him figure out why.
Rick is starting middle school and quietly worried: everyone seems to have crushes, and he never has. When he spots a flyer for the Rainbow Spectrum, an after-school club where children of all kinds of identities hang out, he sneaks in to see if it might explain something about himself. There he starts to find words like asexual and aromantic that fit how he feels, makes real friends, and has to face a harder question: what to do about his oldest friend Jeff, whose bullying he's spent years laughing along with.
It's a quiet, thoughtful book that takes a child's own uncertainty seriously without rushing it. Rick isn't sure if he's asexual, aromantic, both, or still figuring it out, and the book lets that be okay, which is a relief for any child who feels a step behind their friends. The Jeff thread gives it real backbone: it's honestly about the moment you realize a friend's meanness isn't funny anymore. It's a companion to Gino's 'Melissa,' but stands completely on its own.