*Ben Washington Is the Newbie on the Block by Jasmine Mullen

Young Ben Washington, the star of this new middle-grade series, is funny, flawed, and fully relatable.

*Ben Washington Is . . . the Newbie on the Block by Jasmine Mullen. Moody Publishers, 2024, 150 pages.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 8-10

Recommended for: ages 8-14

Ben Washington has no complaints about Atlanta: it’s big, bustling, and bounding with aunts, uncles, and noisy cousins. He likes his school and neighborhood and family holidays, especially Thanksgiving. So why pull him up like a trailing vine and haul him all the way to Radner Falls, Wisconsin, the whitest of white-bread towns in the chilly Midwest?

Because his dad’s Uncle Herbie, whom Ben has never met, passed away and left his beloved bookstore to the nephew who shared his love of literature. Booker, Tea, Washington (the store) can’t be allowed to close. Hence, the move.

Ben hates everything about it, starting with Uncle Herbie’s “slime green” house. It’s “skinny and tall and crooked like my cousin Devonte.” And of course there’s the small-town school where everybody already knows each other. “Sixth grade is brutal enough,” but Mom won’t listen to his pleas to homeschool. Both parents understand the challenge though. The mandatory parental Talk reminds him that, unlike Atlanta, there will be no classmates who “look like him”—i.e., black. But there’s one weird redheaded kid who gloms onto him right away and may have the makings of a best friend. And there’s Emily Gonzales who makes his stomach flip. And it’s just possible, though it’ll take a while for Ben to come to this conclusion, that God may have plans for him in Radner Falls, Wisconsin.

Ben faces some challenges peculiar to his race, such as classmates calling him LeBron even though he’s terrible at basketball. Other problems are generic to any twelve-year-old, like dealing with the class bully and his sycophants, going along with a prank that may backfire, tip-toeing around a creepy neighbor. But Ben meets challenges with a plucky spirit and a narrative tone that’s laugh-out-loud funny at times. More challenges will lie ahead, but this is a protagonist, and a series, we can heartily get behind. And fortunately, we don’t have to wait for the next volume: Ben Washington Is the Odd Man Out is already available.

Bottom Line: An appealing and humorous take on middle school problems, with a distinctive voice.

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: For the Stange Condition Called Middle School, we revisit the Origami Yoda series.
• Reviews: The Star that Always Stays and Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus are two more fish-out-of water stories (both starred reviews).

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