Children's ✦ Penny’s Take
What About Will
Ellen Hopkins · 2023
84/100
👍 Worth It
Ellen Hopkins brings the same verse-driven emotional precision to middle grade that made her YA work so powerful, and the TBI-to-opioid pipeline she traces is both timely and rarely depicted for this audience. The sibling perspective — Trace watching helplessly as Will deteriorates — gives the story real moral weight without feeling preachy. Multiple award nominations and YALSA recognition confirm this is serious, well-executed work for upper middle grade.
✦ 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: Frank portrayal of prescription opioid addiction and depression; not appropriate for early or sensitive middle-grade readers without adult guidance. We still scored it 84; these are context for your family, not an automatic skip.
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Show the math
Verdict receipt0–100
safety72
substance88
craft88
originality82
accuracy85
hype70
age-fit80
human-eye88
Penny’s verdict84
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