Book Description
for How to Become a Planet by Nicole Melleby
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
Pluto, who is white, loves astronomy, missed the last month of seventh grade due to major depression and anxiety. This summer she’s under constant supervision as she’s towed to and from her mom’s pizzeria. Her dad wants her to move in with him in New York City, but Pluto just wants everything to go back to normal. She has a checklist of tasks that, if completed, will prove she can be her old self again: attend her best friend’s birthday party, start therapy, meet with a tutor, and visit the planetarium for her birthday. She befriends and then starts crushing on Fallon, also white, whose own summer goals include cutting her hair and convincing her mom to let her wear a suit, rather than a dress, to her brother’s wedding. But Pluto’s road to recovery is anything but straight. She’s frustrated and angry and doesn’t feel like herself. And her mom, who is trying so hard, doesn’t always get things right. Notably, Pluto experiences no sudden or magical cure in this heartrending story; rather, she realizes she must learn how to manage and cope with her mental illness, while her mother and friends begin to learn how best to support her. (Ages 9-12)
CCBC Choices 2022. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2022. Used with permission.