By Chad Sell
One summer, one neighborhood, and a big cast of children who build whole identities out of cardboard.
Over a single summer, a whole neighborhood of children turn cardboard boxes into costumes and become their alter egos: a sorceress, a robot, a huntress, a mad scientist. Each short chapter follows a different child, and their made-up kingdom is where they figure out who they really are, from the boy who loves playing the villainous sorceress to the girl who won't be told what a girl can be.
There's no single long plot to keep hold of, which is a real gift for a reluctant reader. It's a set of short, bright, funny chapters, each about a different child, so there's always a clean stopping point and always a new face to meet. The whole thing runs on imaginative play, the exact kind children already do, so it reads like watching the fun neighborhood you wish you'd grown up on. It's also one of the warmest books going about letting children be exactly who they are.