I can’t believe I haven’t read Andrew Clements before, but I’m really glad I discovered him now. He’s fast becoming one of my favorite middle-grade writers.

Normally I’m drawn to YA and middle-grade fantasy, SF, and mysteries, and those remain my favorites. But lately my ten year old’s reading for school has necessitated stepping outside my favorite genre haunts and picking up books on other people’s reading lists. I’ve read and reviewed Clements’s The Janitor’s Boy, and really enjoyed it. So picking up The School Story was actually a no-brainer at that part.

I knew from my previous experience with Clements that he could hold his own emotionally in a story. I knew I’d like the characters and that they would have problems I could relate to.

What I didn’t expect was the education about the world of writing and publishing that is so much a part of this wonderful story. I know kids are interested in just about everything these days, but I didn’t know they would have been curious at all as to how a book gets bought, published, and advertised.

Clements does all these things in an interesting manner. Not only that, but he makes those facets of publishing a big part of the novel. Each one of those steps of getting a book to a publisher, into the hands of the right editor, and into reader awareness becomes a stumbling block for our three intrepid heroines.

Natalie Nelson is the writer. Her dad tragically died and she was really close to him. She wrote her book, called The Cheater, partially in his memory, because she didn’t want to forget about him. And because she knows her mom, Hannah, is struggling with everything as well. She pours out her heart onto the pages and wins the support and enthusiastic belief from Zoe Reisman. Natalie wants her mom, an editor at a book publisher, to publish her book, but doesn’t want any special favors. So she invents a pseudonym to write under.