ABOUT THE NORTH AMERICAN EDITION | ABOUT THE UK EDITION
“The Mumps say we all have a handful of defining moments.”
At the start of ninth grade, Wilbur Nuñez-Knopf is hoping for a fresh start. But he just can’t live down a deeply humiliating moment from two years earlier, and it follows him into high school. His good friend Alex has stuck by him, but Alex has started dating Fabrizio and he doesn’t have much time to hang out. Luckily, Wil can confide in his best friend: his elderly neighbor Sal. But he’s lonely, and longs to have a special someone of his own. He spends his spare time writing poems, playing triangle in the school band, working a McJob and walking his ugly but affectionate chihuahua, Templeton.
When the band does an exchange with students from Paris and the French kids arrive in Toronto, a girl named Charlie captures Wilbur’s heart. But his feelings aren’t reciprocated. So Alex, Fabrizio, and Sal join forces to build Wil’s confidence, in the hopes he can impress Charlie when they go to Paris. Maybe, just maybe, Wilbur will find a new defining moment in the City of Love.
A funny and heartfelt story about learning how to rise above your worst moment while staying true to yourself – with the help of old friends, new friends – and a dollop of cheesy poetry.
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AWARDS/HONOURS
Nominated for the 2022 UK Carnegie Medal
Nominated for the 2022 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Award
Nominated for the 2022 IODE Violet Downey Award
Nominated for the 2022 Ontario Library Association’s “Red Maple Award”
Nominated for the 2022 Oklahoma Sequoyah Award