Maiya Williams. The Fizzy Whiz Kid. New York: Abrams, 2010. Print.

Mitch Mathis is the new sixth-grader at the Cecil B. DeMille School. Yes, only in Hollywood would there be a school with that name.  His parents are both academics and have nothing to do with show business, but it seems everyone else’s parents do. On a lark Mitch tries out for a children’s casting call and becomes the face of a popular soda campaign. Suddenly his three-word slogan, “You like bubbles?” is everywhere.

Like most new kids in school, he had tried to fit in by blending in, and now he stands out. His new friends start acting differently. Some seem uncomfortable around him, some seem jealous, and the bullies have rediscovered him. He finds himself in his own little world filled with people filming commercials who are all in their own little world.

Over the years, I have read and reviewed many Young Adult (YA) novels that are geared toward middle school kids. It seems like the protagonists in all these stories do no fit in—they are really spies (several books), their dad is a rock star, their dad is a mobster, their dad has a weird job (like Mitch’s dad), they are orphans, they were mistakenly assigned to the gifted program, they have an unusual supernatural power, they test positively for too many skills, and so on. All they want to do is fit in and at the same time stand out. That is a very difficult thing for anyone, yet that seems to be part of the young teen identity struggle, and such books resonate with them.

The Fizzy Whiz Kid will make readers laugh. We laugh with Mitch, at Mitch, and eventually for Mitch. Perhaps we may even learn something about what really makes us ourselves tick. “We are all actors,” says one of his classmates. How, then, do we act naturally?

P.S. The Fizzy Whiz Kid has an inside look at the film business. One “Catch-22” it notes is that is no one can get a job without an agent, and no agent will sign someone who has not had an acting job. Very much like the writing racket publishing business: Most publishers will not look at unagented work but an agent is not going to take on someone who has not been published…Maybe this blog will help?