Linked

An anonymously painted swastika appears on the middle school wall of tiny Chokecherry, Colorado, triggering a school-wide tolerance education unit. The school assemblies evoke varied responses from the kids: art club president Michael Amorosa is uncomfortable (and a suspect) because he discovered the crime; popular kid Lincoln Rowley is annoyed that a piece of graffiti that was on the wall “for like five seconds” has become the center of everyone’s attention; and Dana Levinson, the only Jewish student at the school, feels isolated and put on display. The students begin to feel better about the incident once they embark on a project to create a paper chain with links representing each of the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust—until new swastikas begin appearing at the school nearly every day. Who is the perpetrator? And is the current situation related to a KKK incident that occurred in Chokecherry a generation ago?

Korman’s latest middle grade novel features multiple narrators, allowing readers to understand each character’s perspectives. The mystery of the graffiti artist’s identity is well handled, with judicious clues dropped along the way. Of equal importance to the who-did-it is the why, and the author makes clear that, while some hate crimes are stupid kid stuff, other cases involve deeply held prejudices. As always, Korman knows what hooks will grab his readers: one side plot involves a social media personality, Reeltok, who comes to town to exploit the situation for his own viewership; another involves Linc’s discovery that his grandmother is a Holocaust survivor, prompting him to study for a bar mitzvah. Linked succeeds as a mystery, and the well-integrated, but never-didactic, discussion of hate crimes and prejudice elevates this timely offering far above the usual middle school fare.