Grape is in trouble again!

He punched Miss Roof in the arm!

Now he’s suspended for two weeks, and Principal Clarkson has threatened to send him to Riverwash, a school for problem kids. But he has one last chance. Grape must spend an hour a day writing about his history of trouble, and there’s a lot of trouble to choose from….

Grape’s best friend Lou is by his side, and even though Grape drives his parents crazy, they’re pulling for him all the way.

But will Grape make sense of it all?

Will it be enough to keep him out of Riverwash?

Praise for Grape!

“Grape’s misadventures, born from the ‘spiders’ in his brain, are hilarious and heart-wrenching. Whether he’s stuck in a storm drain, singing songs to his crush, or (gulp) streaking, you will find yourself cheering and quite possibly shedding a tear for this dear boy. Grape! is a book of uncommon empathy, a perfect story for every child who wants to be heard and loved for who they are,
and for every grown up who wants to understand them.”

–  J. Cynthia McDermott.EdD., Founder, Horace Mann Upstanders Children’s Book Award, Professor and Regional Director at Antioch University Los Angeles

“Gabriel Arquilevich has created something very special here. Hilarious, moving, and full of life, Grape is an unforgettable character, an unforgettable book.”

– Gayle Brandeis, award-winning author of My Life with the Lincolns

“Quirky kids (and adults who remember being quirky kids) will cheer for Gabriel Arquilevich’s Grape!—a lovable mess of a tween who moves from one laugh-out-loud disaster to another while struggling to navigate school and friendships and musical theater camp in this rollicking homage to 1970s pop culture.”

– Melissa Hart, author of Avenging the Owl and Better with Books: 500 Diverse Books to Ignite Empathy and Encourage Self-Acceptance in Tweens and Teens.

“An honest troublemaker pleads his way into our hearts in Grape!, the upper middle grade treasure from Gabriel Arquilevich.”

-Joe Walters, Independent Book Review [read the full review]

“The thing is, I have these spiders in my brain, and sometimes they take over.” It’s June 1976, and Grape is in trouble. Not his usual brand of getting-kicked-out-of-class trouble, but big, got-suspended, punched-Miss-Roof-in-the-arm trouble. Mrs. C, the principal, is considering transferring him to Riverwash, a school for troubled kids, but she believes Grape is a “good kid” deep down. She gives him a special assignment to write a daily journal reflecting on “his history of getting in trouble,” up to the moment he hit a teacher. So Grape writes. About the spiders in his brain that make him do wild things. About his friends and crushes, tormentors, and travails. About going to camp, arguing with God, and playing dice baseball, the “stupidest game ever invented.” This tale is hilarious, heart-rending, and hair-raising. The son of Argentinean Jews, Grape peppers his rambunctious narration and dialogue with contextually translated Spanish and Hebrew. Each chapter is framed as a discrete journal entry, addressed to the ubiquitous but never-seen Mrs. C. Some chapters are self-contained enough to stand alone, but the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts. Most characters lack detailed physical descriptions, but their colorful personalities, unique speech patterns, and emotional depth make the world on the page as vivid as our own. Like the Jewish God, the story seems almost to have no beginning and no end: a perfectly imperfect slice of life.

–Kirkus Reviews (starred)