Theme of "appreciate the particulars of your own life; there's no such thing as normal anyway," which frankly is a still good a lesson for me and it would have been great if I'd learned it when I was twelve. Also gently makes the point that the way Jeremy feels -- that the world around him privileges and caters to the other sex -- is how most girls and women feel all the time. Careful nudges toward thinking about gender privilege, without hammering readers over the head with it.

Mostly the book is funny -- prank hijinks! -- and a solid friendship school story. Would appeal to boys and girls who like relatable realistic fiction. ( )

St. Edith's tried going coed, but the experiment failed. The school soon stopped accepting boys, but allowed those already enrolled to continue. Over the years, the number of boys has dwindled, and now, the thing he has dreaded has finally come to pass: Jeremy is the last boy left at the school. He gets his tuition waived because his mother is the secretary, which means that she can't afford to pull him out and send him to another private school -- and the public schools in his area are not desirable. Jeremy is desperate: he has to find a way to get kicked out of school that won't land him in juvie. He and his daring friend Claudia settle on a prank war as the best way to get him in just enough, but not too much, trouble. Jeremy has some rules: nobody is to get hurt, and nothing is to be permanently damaged. Unfortunately, things start to (literally) snowball out of his control. Will his plan work, or is Jeremy headed for more trouble than he bargained for?

This was a quick, fun read. It was also an interesting, though not incredibly deep, look at masculinity and what it might be like to be in Jeremy's situation. I'd recommend this to readers who enjoy boarding school stories and tales of prank wars, though this does not have quite the high levels of hilarity that typically characterize the latter. ( )

THE LAST BOY AT ST. EDITH’S by Lee Gjertsen Malone is a humorous, heart-warming school story for middle grade readers.

When seventh-grader Jeremy becomes the last boy attending an all-girl’s private school, he tries to figure out a way to get expelled so he can transfer to another school. However when one of his pranks backfires, he realizes the consequences of his actions and reconsiders what’s important.

Librarians will find this school story to be an enjoyable experience for middle grade readers. The blend of humor with serious, age-appropriate topics make this debut novel a good choice for a broad range of youth.

To learn more about the author, go to http://leegjertsenmalone.com.

Published by Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster on February 23, 2016. ARC courtesy of the publisher. ( )

This review is also available on my blog, Read Till Dawn.

Honestly, sometimes I struggle more writing the "meh" reviews than I do with reviewing books that incite stronger reactions in me. I think it's because the very fact that they're "meh" books means a) I have a much harder time even remembering the story enough to discuss it and b) I don't have any burning reactions I'm just dying to spit out on the page.

I mean, I liked the book - sure I did. I requested it in the first place because I loved the idea of a boy being stuck as the very last male attending an all-girl school, surrounded by no one but females all day long. I thought it was a pretty cool angle, one that I'd never seen done before, and I was excited to see it put into action.

And on one hand I enjoyed the book, because it does offer what it promises: the story revolves around Jeremy's struggle to fit in at an all-boys school, and his attempts to get expelled through a series of pranks that are mainly the brainchild of his best friend Claudia. The thing that hurts the story, for me at least, is that this is pretty much it for interesting storylines. The other storylines aren't very interesting (to me at least - you might find them more to your taste), and one - with the girl Jeremy has a crush on, and a girl who announces late into the book that she has a crush on him - is honestly just sort of cringeworthy. And I don't really like the thoughtless way Jeremy treats the people around him throughout the story.

I enjoyed reading The Last Boy at St. Edith's, but at the same time I wasn't completely engrossed. I don't usually flip forward to see how many pages are left, but I caught myself doing just that in this book. And it's not because I was thinking "oh, this is such a horrible book," but just because the small void in the back of my head wasn't absorbed enough in the story to stay quiet, and so it started whispering distracting things like, "I wonder how long this book is? Let's flip forward and see!"

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying The Last Boy at St. Edith's was the worst book ever or anything like that. It's got a cool premise, and I bet there are a lot of people out there who would absolutely love it. I'm just not one of those people, and while I did enjoy reading it - I swear I did! I'm sorry if this review is too negative! - I instantly forgot it when I put the book down. And I may come back and read it again in the future, if I'm bored and I see it sitting on a shelf, but I'm not so in love with it that I am purposefully planning to return to it someday; in fact, with all the amazing books out there just waiting to be discovered, I doubt I'll ever wind up reading this one again.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary ARC of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. ( )