The Gray

April 1, 2023
A 13-year-old boy learns to cope with anxiety serious enough that it sends him to a place he calls the Gray. Sasha's parents and doctor think his obsession with video games is exacerbating his mental health issues, so they send him to spend a month with his Aunt Ruthie in upstate New York, where Sasha's aunt and uncle used to run a Jewish summer camp. Now Uncle Lou is dead, and the grounds of Camp Akiva sit empty and abandoned. Sasha tries hard to lean in to new experiences like riding a horse and learning martial arts. After being persistently bullied by one of the neighborhood kids, he asks Eli, another troubled boy, to be his bodyguard, leading to a tentative friendship and the recognition that Eli is suffering too. There's a side plot with a horse called the Gray that is a bit unclear in its purpose. Many plot elements are clunky in execution, and some of the characters feel flat or contrived. However, the central idea--that, since water can slowly change a rock, any person on Earth can also change, a concept connected to Uncle Lou's beloved story from the Talmud about Akiva and the Stone--is one of enormous importance. Baron also gets props for his sympathetic and evenhanded depiction of anxiety and the many different ways to treat it, from in-the-minute breathing exercises to appropriate medication. Important and worthy despite some flaws in the storytelling. (author's note) (Fiction. 9-14)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

April 17, 2023
Prescribed a device-free summer to mitigate his generalized anxiety condition and occasional panic, which take him to a misty, distorted world he calls “the Gray,” 13-year-old New Yorker Sasha steels himself for a month upstate. He’ll be visiting his widowed aunt, Ruthie, near the closed-down Jewish summer camp she and late Uncle Lou used to run. Beset by town bullies and memories of his late uncle, and feeling unmoored without his video games, Sasha experiences anxiety spikes and sensory overwhelm. Connecting with nature at the old camp and revisiting Uncle Lou’s Talmudic stories coaxes him to decompress, however, and he opens up to new activities and budding friendships that challenge his assumptions about others and reveal the benefits of change. Baron (The Magical Imperfect) intricately captures teen friendship dynamics, interweaving quiet suspense by gradually divulging a pivotal, dark moment in the town’s recent past. Sensory-rich settings and viscerally imagined depictions of anxiety manifest an immersive world without pulling punches, carving a hopeful path for Sasha’s mental health management. An author’s note shares Baron’s lived experience with anxiety. Characters cue as white; Sasha and his family are Jewish. Ages 10–14. Agent: Rena Rossner, Deborah Harris Agency.

April 15, 2023
Grades 5-8 Thirteen-year-old Sasha deals with generalized anxiety and panic attacks, which he has dubbed "The Gray." They get worse when he spends too much time on his electronic devices, so his concerned parents decide a device-free month upstate with his great-aunt Ruthie will be a tonic. Sasha disagrees: "This will be the worst summer ever." Nevertheless, country, here he comes. Happily, once there he quickly makes a friend in Ivy; unhappily, he runs afoul of a band of bullies, from whom he is rescued by a mysteriously taciturn, solitary boy named Eli. Grateful, Sasha tries to befriend the boy, who is a year older, but is rejected. So he hires Eli as his bodyguard and agrees to help him at the horse ranch where the older boy works, trying to tame a wild horse called--wait for it--The Gray. Baron's often-quiet story is well-plotted, and the characters are empathetic, especially Eli. The theme, change, is well-handled and perhaps will change readers as much as it does Sasha in the end.

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