Butter is an inside portrait of the effects of bullying, with a sensitive and intelligent boy as a narrator. That Butter—and how he got that nickname will break your heart—isn’t particularly honest, with himself or others, carries the story forward as well. It helps, though, that he’s honest with the readers. The teens in this book are almost all privileged white kids, but that doesn’t lessen the impact that this story has—although it does offer some solutions that are not as easily available for less-well-off children, such as top-notch medical care and therapeutic environments.

That aside, though, Butter is a boy to love. He doesn’t want to be isolated and bullied, and he’s willing to pay any price to stop being the butt of the joke.