I was not really the audience for the book Wednesday Wilson Connects the Dots. However, it is well written by Bree Galbraith, has good representation with a diverse cast, and is a familiar story of friendship, business sense and valuing yourself and work. The illustrations by Morgan Goble help transition from a mostly illustrated read to a mostly text read and gives you pieces that might not be picked up by the words. I was not aware this was a series until after reading, so I recommend reading Wednesday Wilson Gets Down to Business (which I believe is the first one) first. Though the book is out, I read via an online reader copy.
The story itself is simple enough. Wednesday is a young kid (while I have seen “she” in descriptions about them, they present as more non-binary and I don’t remember anyone saying “her” towards Wednesday) with a best friend named Charlie, a sibling called Mister (this is not explained so I’m assuming the first installment will), two moms (also a biracial couple), and a former best friend, Ruby. During a snow day from school, Charlie and Wednesday start planning their latest business adventure (we learn that their endeavors usually do not work out as planned). But Ruby is coming over, too, as her parents are busy and her brother is not available to watch her as he is working on his latest social media makeup tutorial. Therefore, the four of them must hang out, but how can you hang out with your once-friend-now-enemy? Of course, things work out and we learn why Ruby started to hang out with the mean girls, the business adventure has an epic twist, and there is kale pizza.
The idea itself was not what threw off my flow, but the lack of information (like is Mister’s real name Mister?) and curious about Ruby and Wednesday’s previous relationship. Plus, there was an event that I thought the kids were in the wrong about, but they are never really told why that was, and they get away with stealing one of mom’s special art markers (I just wanted this to be acknowledge why it is bad to take other people’s things, even if you don’t actually use them).. Publisher descriptions say for fans of Ramona Quimby (though Ramona might be a smidgen older), Marty McGuire, and Clementine.