How to Become a Planet

Summer normally means the boardwalk, the planetarium and helping in her mother’s pizzeria for Pluto Timoney. This year, depression makes even familiar pleasures difficult to reach. With her father proposing that she move to the city, Pluto tries to prove she can become her former self and stay where she belongs. Support from a therapist, a tutor and new friend Fallon complicates that plan in useful ways. Her feelings for Fallon become another part of discovering herself. Nicole Melleby’s middle-grade novel follows a thirteen-year-old whose love of astronomy helps shape the questions she asks about identity, mental health and what it means to get better.