The Science of Being Angry by Nicole Melleby

Excellent for older middle grade and above in classrooms, book groups, and/or communities looking to increase empathy for new and existing arrivals from afar. Help us.” With this book, Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant, offering a skillfully wrought narrative laced with global and intergenerational reverberations that signal hope for the future. Mahmoud eventually concludes that visibility is best: “See us….Hear us. Each third-person narrative offers an accessible look at migration under duress, in which the behavior of familiar adults changes unpredictably, strangers exploit the vulnerabilities of transients, and circumstances seem driven by random luck. Each initially leaves by boat, struggles between visibility and invisibility, copes with repeated obstacles and heart-wrenching loss, and gains resilience in the process. Each traverses a landscape ruled by a dictator and must balance freedom, family, and responsibility. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. In the midst of political turmoil, how do you escape the only country that you’ve ever known and navigate a new life? Parallel stories of three different middle school–aged refugees-Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo-eventually intertwine for maximum impact. Regardless, this is powerfully crafted with a satisfying conclusion, and it tackles uncommon but critical themes with nuance and complexity. Some hints are dropped about the triplets’ donor’s identity that never get resolved, and the genetics assignment is a convenient but shakily executed plot device. Some parts of the novel don’t quite hang together, like an early reference to Joey’s moms being “ridiculously strict about certain gender-related things, like girls wearing shirts outside,” even though one mom hates dresses and both support her playing hockey on an otherwise all-boys team. Melleby gets readers inside Joey’s head, making them empathize with a frustrating, unlikable, and regularly violent main character, an impressive feat.

nurture, gives Joey the idea of tracking down her sperm donor to find out if he also has anger management issues. A class project on genetics, framed as nature vs.

When the novel opens, she gets her family-her two moms, her identical twin brothers (she’s the fraternal triplet), and her nonbiological mom’s older son, Benny-evicted from their apartment after she punches a security guard. She throws things, kicks, hits, yells, and calls other kids names. Nobody understands why 11-year-old Joey does the things she does.

The Science of Being Angry by Nicole Melleby