Robin Mellom

The Epic Documentary of a Not-Yet-Epic Kid

Lynn Braden

It's the first day of middle school for Trevor Jones and things are not going as he had hoped. His best friend, Libby, has told Trevor that she doesn't want to be friend, friends anymore, and he has no clue how to handle the bus thing. When he asks an eighth grader for help, which he knows he's not supposed to do, Marty just tells him to "chill." Things get worse when he gets to school and is tricked into going into the teachers' bathroom. The situation doesn't improve when he tries to adhere to Libby's deadline of getting a date for the first dance of the year prior to the end of the day and then goes to lunch an hour early. Trevor isn't sure he's going to make it to the second day of school.

The Epic Documentary of a Not-Yet-Epic Kid isn't exactly what I expected. Many of the troubles that Trevor has are typical first day problems for middle school students and are funny, but some are way over the top and make it seem like the author was reaching a bit too hard for humor. Trevor is described as a "worrier," which translates to extreme anxiety, but in the end, he handles it just about as well as anyone could. Other than Trevor, there isn't a lot of character development since most of the teachers and students are endowed with quirks rather than personalities. Overall, The Epic Documentary of a Not-Yet-Epic Kid would have been better if it had stayed a little closer to reality with more of a focus on the documentary.