The School for Whatnots is a middle grade adventure fantasy by Margaret Peterson Haddix. Released 1st March 2022 by Harper Collins, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.
This is a fantasy with thriller elements for ages ca. 8-12 years. The characters are easy to empathize with and likeable. Max is a poor-little-rich-boy and reminds me a lot of the Richie Rich comics from my own childhood. Josie is a poor kid trying to pretend she's an android in order to get a good education. Add a shadowy (benevolent?) corporation providing rich parents with the option to raise their offspring in a safe bubble surrounded by androids (Whatnots), a real human kid secretly introduced into the android school classroom peers who becomes fast friends with the protagonist Max, and secret adventures - kids vs. adults, and stir well.
Although the plot explores some interesting and worthy themes: friendship, honesty, safety, wealth inequality, what it means to be human, alongside the adventure aspects of the plot, it had a somewhat unfinished "window dressing" feel. Most of the characters, aside from Max and Josie, were cardboard cutouts and felt like they were plot devices instead of real characters.
The author's writing and the narrative itself are quite good. I can only assume the off-kilter stage dressing feel of much of it was entirely intentional and I'm still not sure why.
I'm outside the target audience by 40 years, however I think 10 year old me would've enjoyed it very much, despite the oddness. The mystery and plot twists were well written and resolved, although again, sort of surreal and it's unclear what the author was going for in terms of message and meaning.
The unabridged audiobook format has a run time of 6 hours and 12 minutes and is expertly narrated by Lillie Ricciardi. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.
Four stars. It would make a good selection for public or school library acquisition or for young readers who enjoy adventure/fantasy realism/mystery.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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