TURTLE BOY

Twelve-year-old Will Levine only likes two things: turtles and the nature preserve behind Prairie Marsh Middle School. Everything else -- the first day of seventh grade, the school dance, going to his classmates' Bar and Bat Mitzvahs -- is a total nightmare.

Will has a facial difference that has earned him an unfortunate nickname, and things with his only two friends, Max and Shirah, are falling apart. Just when he didn't think life could get any worse, Will learns that his beloved nature preserve is slated to be destroyed by a real estate developer.

Feeling lost and depressed, he is assigned a community service project: to visit an older teenager named RJ, who is suffering from a progressively worsening mitochondrial disease. Stuck living his life within the confines of a hospital room for the past two years, RJ has been crafting a secret bucket list of all the things he wishes he had the opportunity to do before his illness takes its final toll. After working through their mutual mistrust, RJ shares the list with Will, and Will reluctantly agrees to help RJ live out the items on the bucket list before it's too late. With every item, Will -- a boy who's afraid to live -- learns to embrace the life he has from a boy who soon may die. Each discovers that they have strength to lend the other, and that life is too short to live in a shell.

Filled with characters who leap off the page and are hugely relatable, TURTLE BOY is a brilliant, uplifting portrayal of friendship.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

M. Evan Wolkenstein is a Jewish educator, style writer, and illustrator living in San Francisco. He received a bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a master's in Jewish Education from Hebrew University. Evan has been published in the Washington Post and Tablet Magazine. He also creates animated cartoons for teaching pedagogy. Turtle Boy is his first novel. You can see more about Evan on his blog https://stylefordorks.com/.