OCDaniel

Daniel's life revolves around hiding his obsessive compulsive disorder until he gets a mysterious note that changes everything in this moving middle grade novel that Booklist called, "sometimes painful, sometimes amusing, and always rewarding" in a starred review.

Daniel is the back-up punter for the Erie Hills Elephants. Which really means he's the water boy. He spends football practice perfectly arranging water cups-and hoping no one notices. Actually, he spends most of his time hoping no one notices his strange habits-he calls them Zaps: avoiding writing the number four, for example, or flipping a light switch on and off dozens of times over. He hopes no one notices that he's crazy, especially his best friend Max, and Raya, the prettiest girl in school. His life gets weirder when another girl at school, who is unkindly nicknamed Psycho Sara, notices him for the first time. She doesn't just notice him: she seems to peer through him.

Then Daniel gets a note: "I need your help," it says, signed, Fellow Star Child-whatever that means. And suddenly Daniel, a total no one at school, is swept up in a mystery that might change everything for him.

With great voice and grand adventure, this book is about feeling different and finding those who understand.

About the Author

Wesley King is the author of The Incredible Space Raiders from Space!, which Publishers Weekly called “a well-drafted coming-of-age story” that “will keep [readers] turning pages.” King’s first book, The Vindico and its sequel, The Feros, were both Junior Library Guild selections. The Vindico also won a Red Maple Award, a kid’s choice award that involved the participation of more than 250,000 kids in Wesley’s home province of Ontario, Canada.