Stu Truly’s life had been going on like it always had – hanging with his best friend Ben, eating left over pork chops for lunch at school, and always (pretty much) telling the truth.. That all changed when new girl, Becca, came to their school. Suddenly, he had sweaty palms, stumbled over his words, and proclaimed to be a vegetarian.

Dan Richards’s STU TRULY tells a story of an awkward time in life where boys start to notice girls and some kids hit their growth spurt before others. With Stu’s heart pounding in his chest and thought/speech connection severed, he blindly navigates one of the hardest times in a person’s life – middle school.

Richards’s storytelling weaves a light, comedic tone with the brutal emotional honesty that comes with growing up. Each humorous misstep and foot in mouth moment rings true to what most of us have experienced at Stu’s age. The memories of what it felt like to try holding onto the innocence of being a kid while at the same time knowing that change is inevitable are the ones that we can look back in reverence as life changing, but ones we never want to experience again.

I recommend STU TRULY for kids 10-13, the age where they are going through these changes and feeling as lost at times as Stu. And for those of us who have survived adolescence, I believe you can safely laugh at the cringe-worthy misadventures knowing that it’s only a book and you will not be magically sent back to reliving your tween years. Promise!

Want to make sure that you don’t miss out on great content from Middle-Grade Mafia! Enter your email address in the Subscribe Form at the top/right of the page.