Review: One Small Hop
One Small Hop
by Madelyn Rosenberg
Scholastic Press
Category: Middle Grade
Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz
One Small Hop is a surprising departure for author Madelyn Rosenberg
from her other middle grade novels, This is Just a Test and Not Your
All-American Girl (both co-written with Wendy Wan-Long Shang). Those
books are both set in the 1980s and tell stories of young teens dealing
with typical issues involving school, friendship, and family. In
contrast, One Small Hop is a tale of a not-so-distant future devastated
by climate change. In the small shore town of Town Harbor, Maine,
Jonathan “Ahab” Goldstein and his friends come upon something rare and
wondrous- a real, live bullfrog. They should turn the frog over to the
Environmental Police Force. But the EPF is completely inept, and Ahab
worries that the frog will die in the agency’s care. No, this might be
the last bullfrog in the country, and Ahab and his friends decide they
must find it a mate on the black market. Not only could they propagate
the frog population, but this might be Ahab’s invitation into Darwin’s
Disciples, a secret society of scientists he dreams of joining.
But saving a species isn’t easy. With Ahab’s older sister Juliette as
their chaperone, Ahab and his pals set out on an odyssey of a bike trip
to find the one person in Canada who claims to have just what they’re
looking for: a female bullfrog.
While One Small Hop does deal with serious topics like climate change
and extinction, Rosenberg has infused the narrative with plenty of
pre-teen hijinks and humor. Like its main character, One Small Hop is
full of hope for a better future for our planet. The snappy dialogue and
McGyver-like antics make what could be a somber, dystopian book along
the lines of The Maze Runner into a feel-good story with an optimistic,
positive vibe.
Madelyn Rosenberg is a wonderful storyteller, and she certainly did her research regarding the issues raised in One Small Hop. The book has solid literary merit, and is perfect for its intended middle grade audience. However, while Ahab and his family are Jewish, Judaism is not addressed in One Small Hop. Ahab makes a passing reference here and there to his religion, but One Small Hop would not be considered a Jewish book for the purposes of the Sydney Taylor Award. [Editor's note: While not named as such, the actions of Ahab and his friends offer a model of the Jewish concept of tikkun olam, or repairing the world.]
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