Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
The Swift Boys & Me
Kody Keplinger · 2014
78/100
👍 Worth It
Keplinger's middle-grade debut earns its praise from Kirkus and RT Book Reviews — Nola's voice is emotionally honest and her small-town Kentucky world feels real. The novel does something genuinely hard: it shows how the same grief fractures different people differently, without tidying it into an easy resolution. A fine choice for readers ages 8-12 navigating change.
✦ 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
safety88
substance80
craft78
originality72
accuracy82
hype75
age-fit85
human-eye80
Penny’s verdict78
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