Just Shy Of Ordinary – AJ Sass

I made out rhyme, verse, and imagination in the curve of the letter P before turning to Edie. “Is that what you suggested in our group chat?” “Yep. It’s a calligram. The words form an image of what they describe. Usually, it’s something like a cat with words like whiskers and cute, furry menace or whatever, but it’s kind of hard to visualize a school club, so I think this works for the PC.”

“It’s cool.” I tried to smile, but my lips quivered a little. “Are you okay?” “Yeah, just a little nervous about tonight.” “Oh, right! You’re going to a synagogue for the first time.” Which was also called a temple and a beit knesset (the beit there may or may not’ve been related to the beit in Beit Shalom’s name, but I hadn’t come across that in my research yet). There were possibly other words that meant “synagogue” between L and Z that I hadn’t looked up yet, either.

I flipped a row of green sequins on my arm sleeve to purple, then I nodded. “Text me how it goes? I hope you learn a lot.” “Me too.” Nia cleared her throat. The room began to quiet down. “And thanks.” I shot Edie a grateful look before focusing back on Nia. “Welcome, everyone, to the first-ever in-person Poetry Club.” She looked over her shoulder. “And thanks to Miss Richardson for being our teacher advisor.”

Nia waited a beat as Miss Richardson gave us a little wave, then turned back to us. “I think we can keep the format the same as on Zoom, with people signing up to talk about a different style of poetry each week, then doing readings, giving feedback, and writing our own stuff.”

My throat felt tight, making it hard to swallow. If I couldn’t untangle parts of my heritage after days of research, maybe I wouldn’t be great at doing specific styles of poetry, either. “Since it’s our first meeting,” Nia continued, “I figured I’d introduce a poetry style I discovered over the summer. Unless anyone else wants to go?”

When no one spoke up, Nia launched into her talk about the nonet, a type of poem that was like a haiku, except it was nine lines instead of three. The first line had to have nine syllables, the second line eight, and so on until you got to one syllable in the ninth and final line. “Some info for those who are new.” Nia turned back to us. “You are free to share a poem and ask for feedback.

If you don’t want people’s opinions, you can just read it and sit. The only rule about feedback is it must be constructive.” She raised her eyebrows. “That means no unhelpful comments.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. Copyright © 2024 by Andrew Sass-Cao Illustration copyright © 2024 by Rebecca Shieh Cover art copyright © 2024 by Rebecca Shieh. Cover design by Gabrielle Chang. Cover copyright © 2024 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Interior design by Gabrielle Chang. Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property.

If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Little, Brown and Company Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104 Visit us at LBYR.com First Edition: January 2024 Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Little, Brown name and logo are registered trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. Spiral notebook coils copyright © SpicyTruffel/Shutterstock.com Emoji images copyright © Cosmic_Design/Shutterstock.com Little, Brown and Company books may be purchased in bulk for business, educational, or promotional use. For information, please contact your local bookseller or the Hachette Book Group Special Markets Department at [email protected]. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Sass, A. J., author. Title: Just shy of ordinary / A.J. Sass.

Description: First edition. | New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2024. | Audience: Ages 8–12. | Summary: Shai, a thirteen-year-old nonbinary homeschooler, attempts to find a “new normal” post-pandemic as they start public school, meet new friends, and learn about their Jewish identity. Identifiers: LCCN 2023006589 | ISBN 9780316506175 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780316506373 (ebook) Subjects: CYAC: Gender identity—Fiction. | Anxiety—Fiction. | Middle schools—Fiction.

| Schools—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction. | Friendship —Fiction. | Jews—United States—Fiction.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: b464198707722297
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 4,198,407 bytes (4.004 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9780316506175, 9780316506373
• Pages: 273
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 361.49 minutes
• Total Words: 72,298
• Total Characters: 394,731
• Average Words per Page: 264.83
• Average Characters per Page: 1445.9

Most Frequent Words

like (484), mom (402), said (389), edie (380), mille (372), nia (326), back (242), i’d (232), didn’t (223), one (216), i’m (212), time (207), felt (188), now (178), know (177), school (173), it’s (171), still (164), even (164), right (153), looked (152), grandpa (148), get (147), shai (144), got (141), also (139), something (129), nan (128), want (127), yeah (127), new (126), first (124), wasn’t (123), don’t (118), that’s (117), okay (116), made (115), good (113), maybe (111), think (110), little (105), thought (105), people (103), around (102), see (102), thomas (101), eyes (101), going (100), way (97), thierry (96), day (95), started (95), hair (94), miss (94), couldn’t (93), things (92), asked (90), last (89), come (89), project (86), i’ll (86), say (85), really (85), two (81), sleeves (81), sure (81), you’re (79), myself (79), work (77), room (76), arm (75), hadn’t (75), help (75), look (75), make (74), richardson (74), part (73), told (72), feel (71), much (71), wanted (70), took (70), week (69), well (69), home (67), phone (66), turned (65), today (65), tell (64), next (64), every (63), plus (63), knew (62), trying (61), though (61), toward (60), together (60), chapter (59), head (59), away (59).

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