Gr 5-8-Sussy and Guy are two fourth-grade best friends who do everything together, including games of Monopoly, beach vacations, and sledding. They even convince Sussy's parents to buy them a pet leopard gecko that they name Matylda. The pair spend time catching crickets for Matylda to eat, coaxing her to walk onto their hands, and developing an elaborate backstory about Matylda's past before she came to live with them. Tragedy strikes early in the story when Guy is killed in a bike accident and Sussy grapples with how to go on without her best friend. She seeks comfort from Matylda, and as she works through her grief, she becomes obsessed with creating the most perfect environment for the lizard. Narrator Jenna Lamia does an excellent job expressing Sussy's shock, anger, obsession, and grief, and her authentic voicing makes listeners ache for Sussy's loss. Her narration fluctuates as Sussy's mood changes, and the overall effect is haunting. VERDICT This honest portrayal of grief and healing will strike a particular chord with sensitive readers thanks to the powerful, heartfelt narration.-Anne -Bozievich, Friendship Elementary School, Glen Rock, PA © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Fourth-graders Sussy and Guy are inseparable, sharing everything-including a leopard gecko they name Matylda. Though Matylda seems to prefer Guy, who is unfazed by the fact that she eats live food (and her own old skin), Sussy loves her, too. When Guy dies protecting Sussy, she channels her pain into caring for Matylda, believing the lizard keenly feels Guy's loss. Driven by her desire to keep Matylda happy and safe, Sussy begins lying and stealing, becoming increasingly reckless as she fails to confront her grief. At its core, this is a sincere, tender story of friendship: Sussy recounts memories of adventures and conversations with Guy, drawing parallels between the friend she desperately misses and the steadfast Matylda. Even Sussy's thefts serve as a kind of distorted mirror to qualities she admires in Guy and Matylda. Sussy's deep sorrow hovers at the edges of each page, but McGhee (the author of Dessert First and other books, writing as Hallie Durand) handles the story's heavy emotions with a light touch, using Sussy's changing relationship with Matylda and a classmate to provide balance. Ages 8-12. Agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Pippin Properties. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A fascination with herpetology might be a prerequisite for enjoying this middle-grade novel told from the viewpoint of spirited 10-year-old Susquehanna Indiana Reed, who loses her closest friend. A visit to the pet store ends with Sussy and Guy adopting a leopard gecko, whom the pair name Matylda (With a y so it's all her own, insists Guy), and they quickly cook up a fanciful origin story for their pet. Readers will learn a whole lot about the care and feeding of geckos, until a bike accident leads to Guy's death, and Sussy is left alone with the pet they were supposed to share. We never get a real sense of Guy, loyal paragon that he appears, and Sussy's intense ­but, by nature, one-sided attempts to bond with the reptile verge on magical realism. At times, her coping strategies are disturbingly dark, but this tackles grief for the middle-grade set in much the same way as Ali Benjamin's The Thing about Jellyfish (2015). As a simple preadolescent love story, it's refreshing.--MacDonald, Sandy Copyright 2017 Booklist