Naked Mole Rat Saves the World

Twelve-year-old kit (with a small k, short for keep it -together) lives with her agoraphobic mom, a former singer who now works from home as a beautician. Kit, as well, has her own mental issues. In her efforts to make sure things run smoothly for her mom, she often suffers panic attacks. Then kit’s best friend Clem suffers a serious fall, one that results in Clem’s having headaches and experiencing depression which serve to isolate the two and keep them from helping each other.

Told in alternating chapters by kit and Clem, Rivers’ novel highlights the many ways that secrets and untreated mental illness can affect individuals and those close to them. kit’s mom depends on her to run errands and has told kit that her father is the Night Sky, a fiction that kit clings to despite evidence to the contrary. kit, born prematurely, small of stature, and suffering from alopecia, has been told repeatedly by Mom that she resembles a naked mole rat—a fact that no doubt influences her stress-induced transformations into this rodent. And Clem, whose fall took place during a televised family acrobatic act, finds herself unable to admit what really caused her fall and is thus locked into secrets and depression that only push away those who might help her. Minor characters, including Clem’s twin Jorge, Jackson (a classmate and former friend), and Serena (a friend of kit’s mom who claims to be a witch) are also well developed.

In an over-the-top denouement, kit (in the guise of her naked mole rat alter-ego) saves her mom (if not the entire world), and she and her friends discover that letting go of their secrets leads to better relationships. Appended with an author note on mental health, Naked Mole Rat Saves the World should be popular with those on the cusp of adolescence.