47. The Trouble with Heroes. Kate Messner. 2025. 368 pages. [Source: Library] [4 stars, j fiction, coming of age, verse novel, mg fiction, poetry]
First sentence: If I were a better kid, this story would begin with my seventh-grade diploma. Instead it starts with this.
Premise/plot: Finn Connelly is in trouble. Over one summer he has the opportunity to set things right, mostly. He'll be making reparations for knocking over a gravestone in the cemetery. (An arrangement with the daughter of the woman's whose gravestone was knocked over, and I believe agreed upon by the court?). He'll be making up missed hours for PE. He'll be making up a poetry assignment--twenty poems on the subject of HEROES. Mission: climb all forty-six mountains in the Adirondack High Peaks. He'll have 'guides' for most of the climbs--men and women who have volunteered to help him out, men and women who love climbing mountains and/or have an interest in helping the kid out. (I could not tell if the coach was particularly interested in hiking so much as that he wanted to help Finn out.)
Finn is going to hike and climb....write....and grieve. His firefighter father has recently died and his father had PTSD from serving on 9/11.
My thoughts: It made sense for this to be a verse novel. Not all verse novels pass this 'makes sense' test. He is being forced to 'write poetry' and he discovers that it isn't the worst thing in the world. That the process of writing--of writing poems--can be personally helpful. It is very much a coming of age novel. It was good to watch him grow/change throughout the story. This one does offer a few twists and turns on the way. Perhaps I should have seen one of them coming....but I didn't.
This 'problem novel' is heavy at times but it also contains lighter moments. Finn loves baking for instance.
© 2025 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
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