“When I was in preschool, I had a teacher named Starlily.”

From Jennifer L. Holm’s The Fourteenth Goldfish.

Lately, life hasn’t been all that great for Ellie. The change from fifth to sixth grade has created a gap between her best friend and Ellie hasn’t been able to figure out how to get their friendship back yet. However, life is about to get crazier than Ellie ever imagined. Summoned to the police station, Ellie’s mom returns home with a teenage boy whose strange clothes and mannerisms seem unexplainably like her grandfather, Melvin. When the boy criticizes her mother, Ellie realizes that the boy is her scientist grandfather who has somehow reverse-aged himself from the old man she’s always known back to his teenage self. After years of research, Melvin was finally able to make a breakthrough in his search for immortality, but when the teen was discovered in the lab, he was arrested for trespassing and locked out from his research and youth-giving special jellyfish. Desperate to get his research back, Melvin enlists Ellie and her classmate, Raj, for help in sneaking into the lab, but the more time Ellie spends learning about the scientific greats Melvin constantly talks about, the more she’s intrigued by science. However, the more time Ellie spends with young Melvin, the more she finds herself struggling with what kind of life she wants to lead.

Holm’s story is hilarious, informative, and captivating. The main characters are unique, but the story’s driving force is the genuine kindness and openness of Ellie’s character. Young readers will enjoy the slightly science-fiction story, while older readers will find The Fourteenth Goldfish impossible to put down because of the witty heart found within.