Join the Resistance

This was really cute! I picked it up because of my affection for Bens Acker & Blacker. It's a quick, fun middle-grade novel, great for tweens who loved Force Awakens. Annie Wu's illustrations are adorable.

My main quibble is that the protagonist, Mattis, is pretty much the least interesting character? He's not uninteresting–I do appreciate his inner turmoil re: wanting be be heroic vs actually being heroic, and I think that struggle is something relatable for tweens... but just, give me more about Dec, the kid who was raised with a droid for a brother? Give me more about Lorica, the Paris Hilton rebel? It's clearly setting up for a series and I hope future books are narrated by other members of the squadron.