Synopsis
Rex Zero’s family is moving, again, this time to a different school district, and his old friends will probably forget he even exists. What’s more, a trio of bullies is out to get him. Rex’s wild and funny adventures continue as he stumbles into seventh grade, pretending to be someone he’s not, and using his overactive imagination to resolve one of life’s most vexing problems: just when everything is going well, why does it have to change?
School Library Journal
Gr 5 8—When Rex Zero finds out that his family is moving yet again, he is devastated. Although the move is only across town, it means that he will start middle school at Connaught instead of at Hopewell with James, Buster, and Kathy. The four friends decide that regardless of the Ottawa City Council's views on zoning, Rex should attend Hopewell as planned. His records have already been sent over there, and when he offers to take his enrollment paperwork to the new school for his mother, she gratefully accepts: the chores of moving households and raising a family of eight are exhausting. In 1963, it is easy enough for the boy to make his enrollment paperwork disappear and to use the crosstown buses to get to Hopewell. The deception is successful for a while, but Rex learns in the process how taxing the life of a pretender can be. Complicating matters are a budding romance with one of his classmates, threats from a bully and his sidekicks, and a secret laboratory experiment that his older sister is conducting in the back shed. Family dynamics and friendships are skillfully fleshed out, with fully developed characters to whom readers will readily relate. The humor of Rex's first-person narration does not diminish Wynne-Jones's ability to deal with tough issues candidly, and the resolution fully satisfies. This title does stand alone, but it will be most appreciated in libraries where Rex already has a strong following.—Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA