26 March 2023 Richie’s Picks: WHAT HAPPENED TO RACHEL RILEY? by Claire Swinarski, HarperCollins/Quill Tree, January 2023, 352p., ISBN: 978-0-06-321309-8

“‘I know you wish the world were a fair place, Anna,’ Nik said quietly. ‘But sometimes, it just doesn’t work that way. Sometimes, fairness has to be demanded instead of waited for.’”

“As I look back

I can see me lost and searching

Now I find that I can choose, I'm free, oh, yeah

So funny, I just have to laugh

All my troubles been torn in half

I've been lonely, lonely too long”

– The Rascals (1967)

“Anna:...I am.

Rachel: What?

Anna: I’m interested. I see you here, every day, by yourself, just reading. With no friends. No one clapping on your birthday. No one talking to you in the halls. And I care. I don’t think…I don’t think someone should have to live like that, in eighth grade. I know what it’s like to be lonely. That’s all.

<silence>

<silence>

<silence>

Rachel: You’re too nice for this school, Anna.

Anna: But–

Rachel: I’m reading now. For real, okay?”

“This book just made me cry. I am still so scarred by my experience”

– Text to a friend, upon reaching page 94. (Referring to the experience of my own junior high years.) 

There are far too many of us who carry scars from middle school bullying and/or sexual harassment. No tween or teen deserves what I and countless others have endured, or are currently enduring. Transitioning from a homey contained classroom in an elementary school to a large feeder middle school, while transitioning from childhood to adolescence, leads to so many young people encountering the cruel physical and emotional torture–yes, it IS torture–dished out by contemporaries.

“I cared too much, sometimes, and that was part of why I probably didn’t have a ton of friends.”

Meet Anna Hunt. Her family moved from Chicago to Madison, Wisconsin over the summer, which is why it’s a complete mystery to Anna when she sees the manner in which Rachel Riley is ostracized by the entire school. Anna’s a good kid whose lawyer parents have taught her to use her voice and make a difference. (Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we were all taught to do that?) Her ability to readily fit into the new crowd is made even more challenging by her having started school at a young age. She’s in eighth grade, still awaiting puberty.

On Anna’s first day at East Middle School, a student kindly helps Anna find her homeroom. That student is Rachel Riley.

Despite unprofessional, unpardonable roadblocks erected by her teacher and principal, Anna is determined to craft a podcast about what happened to Rachel Riley in order to fulfill her semester-long “un-essay” assignment. She hopes it might also get her into a special summer program on podcasting. But no one–including Rachel herself–is willing to spill the beans on what actually happened, so Anna must engage in thoughtful detective work, aided by her tech-savvy big sister. in order to ferret out the facts.

In addition to Anna’s first-person narration, WHAT HAPPENED TO RACHEL RILEY? is told through emails, texts, messages, scribbled notes, notices, and other modes of today’s communications. The desire to see Anna solve the mystery–so we are in the know–makes this an absolute page turner. 

In some corner of America, some fortunate tweens will get taught or turned onto this gem. As a result, some readers will be less likely to become torturers, and/or will be better prepared for the inhumanity of middle school. Somewhere, this book will inspire someone’s path toward a life of activism. And somewhere, I guarantee you, this book will help save a life.

That’s why, on September 12th, I’ll be clapping for Claire Swinarski’s birthday.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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