STUCK

Fourth-grader, Austin, knows what to do on his first day at a new school. He's done it plenty of times before—blend in, fade out, and don't get noticed. But this school seems a little different. Maybe because it's so close to the end of the year. Maybe it's the teachers here. Or maybe it's his new classmate Bertie who is definitely one of the golden-sticker kids in the class and seems immune to Austin's tried and true strategy—don't talk to the other kids and they won't talk to you. Or maybe it's the chance to be on next year's Fifth Grade Safety Squad and wear a laser lemon vest and help the little kids and really be a part of something. All he has to do is take the Safety test and get his mom to sign the permission slip. But these seemingly small tasks could mean that people not only notice him, but even worse, see right through.

Author of Solving for M (Crown, 2019) and veteran elementary school teacher Jennifer Swender burst on the picture book scene as one half of the husband/wife team that wrote New York City favorite My Subway Ride (Gibbs, Smith, 2006; Finalist of 2004 Foreword Magazine Children's Book of the Year) and followed it up with My Taxi Ride (Gibbs Smith, 2007). Her other picture books include Children's Songbag (Gibbs Smith, 2005), Putting on a Play (Gibbs Smith, 2005), Nascar ABC's (Gibbs Smith, 2007), Nascar 1, 2, 3's (Gibbs Smith, 2009), Fire Drill (Henry Holt, 2010), and Count on the Subway (Knopf, 2014). She is also the coauthor of the chapter book series Animal Inn (Simon & Schuster, 2016) about a pet spa and hotel where the fun-and fur- flies!