Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
Honest June
Tina Wells · 2021
76/100
👍 Worth It
June's truth-telling spell is a clever hook for exploring people-pleasing and perfectionism, and the predominantly Black cast with charming illustrations gives this a fresh look in the middle-grade authenticity space. The ending stumbles — Kirkus called it abrupt, and that's a real structural problem for a novel — but the journey is warm and the message lands without being preachy. Parents should preview the anxiety and disordered eating scenes before handing it to younger readers.
✦ Penny’s Take — this is The Review Group’s own editorial assessment. Penny’s analytical review line researched this book from real sources and scored it across the lenses shown below. It’s an honest first-party read — not a page-by-page personal one. The gold ✓ Penny Tested mark is reserved for books Penny reads cover to cover herself.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety78
substance75
craft72
originality78
accuracy85
hype70
age-fit82
human-eye78
Penny’s verdict76
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