Library's review
A young boy who suffers from anxiety attacks and perhaps other unspecified emotional problems becomes overwrought when his newborn baby brother turns out to have significant health problems. He is visited in his dreams by a wasp queen, who promises to "fix" baby Theo. At first Steve is thrilled
Show More
about this but he soon learns that what the wasps have in mind isn't so nice. I saw a lot of reviews around LT lately praising this book highly as creepy but not scary. I didn't find it to be much of either, even allowing for the fact that it is aimed at a YA audience. None of the human characters had much depth and the story as a whole seemed to be trying too hard to make a point. I was kind of rooting for the wasps, to be honest. Show Less
Genres
Collections
Description
"When wasps come to Steve in a dream offering to fix his sick baby brother, he thinks all he has to do is say yes. But yes may not mean what Steve thinks it means"--
Awards
A Horn Book Fanfare Best Book (Fiction — 2015)
Massachusetts Children's Book Award (Honor — 2018)
Kentucky Bluegrass Award (Nominee — Grades 6-8 — 2017)
Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — Intermediate — 2018)
William Allen White Children's Book Award (Nominee — Grades 6-8 — 2018)
Sunburst Award (Shortlist — Young Adult — 2016)
Vermont Golden Dome Book Award (Nominee — 2017)
Sunshine State Young Reader's Award (Nominee — Grades 3-5 — 2018)
Thumbs Up! Award (Top Ten — 2016)
Oregon Reader's Choice Award (Nominee — 2018)
Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award (Shortlist — 2016)
Silver Birch Fiction Award (Nominee — Fiction — 2017)
The White Ravens (2016)
Mind the Gap Awards (2016)
Maud Hart Lovelace Award (Nominee — 2019)
Rhode Island Middle School Book Award (Nominee — 2018)
Monica Hughes Award for Science Fiction and Fantasy (Finalist — 2016)
TD Canadian Children's Literature Award (Finalist — 2016)
Rocky Mountain Book Award (Nominee — 2017)
Kansas NEA Reading Circle Recommended Book (Junior — 2016)
Notable Children's Book (Middle Readers — 2016)
Nerdy Book Award (Middle Grade Fiction — 2015)