Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
The Best at It
Maulik Pancholy · 2019
80/100
👍 Worth It
Maulik Pancholy writes Rahul's seventh-grade year with the kind of specificity that comes from living it — the anxiety, the cultural in-between-ness, and the slow discovery of something you're genuinely good at all ring true. The Stonewall Honor reflects real critical consensus, and the emotional honesty sets it apart from typical middle-grade fare. Faith-conservative families should know the story handles a same-sex crush in an affirming way.
✦ 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.
⚠ Parent note — our reviewers flagged: LGBTQ+-affirming content: protagonist is a gay preteen with a same-sex crush presented positively; not suitable for faith-conservative families. We still scored it 80; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety75
substance84
craft82
originality80
accuracy90
hype65
age-fit88
human-eye83
Penny’s verdict80
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