Weirdo (Weirdo #1)

Gr 1-4—Weir Do thinks he lost the lottery when it comes to names. His mother named him after her last name before marriage, and Do (rhymes with "go") may pay homage to his father's Vietnamese heritage, but does Weir no favors when he starts a new school. However, Weir's name is only the beginning of his problems as he struggles to make new friends and impress his crush despite her meeting his family, who live up to his "weird" namesake. The line cartoons that accompany the spare text makes this title serviceable to younger or reluctant readers. However, despite the diversity of the cast and often bodily-function induced chuckles provided by the author, other troubling aspects lie beneath the seemingly harmless doodles. Noting "a few surefire signs" on how to spot slow guys before a race, such as "socks pulled up too high" as well as a muscle contest between the boys after a female classmate compliments Weir's as "huge" knocks on toxic masculinity's door. Lining up girls in Weir's class in order of attractiveness, with his crush being seventh, as well as Weir's older sister shaming him for wearing her hand-me-down shoes round out the casual misogyny. As the book is already so short with not much plot outside of fart jokes and crushes, any misstep may as well be a full-on crash landing. VERDICT A passable purchase for those in desperate need of Wimpy Kid readalikes, but most socially conscious collections would be better served with Janet Tashjian's My Life as a Book or Stephan Pastis's "Timmy Failure" books.—Brittany Drehobl, Morton Grove Public Library, IL