John is part of a group of tightly knit fifth-grade boys. After one of them, his best friend Dom, is diagnosed with cancer, John worries that his friend will die. Dom has surgery to remove a kidney, and then undergoes chemotherapy. John misses Dom, and feels guilty when he finds himself forgetting him long enough to laugh with his other friends. But visiting Dom at the hospital is awkward, especially at first. Meanwhile, Ky, another schoolmate who isn’t part of their group and is a bit of a bully, reveals through his work on an independent project that he has been hurt by cancer, too. Sally Murphy’s sensitive, accessible novel in verse stays firmly grounded in John’s fifth-grade perspective, and seamlessly integrates John’s unique interest—setting up huge numbers of dominoes in a pattern and then toppling them. (“I do not want to see Dom topple.”) Although Dom’s future health is uncertain, the book ends on a note of hope and an act of solidarity among Dom’s friends—old and new. (Ages 7–10)

Now that John’s best friend is sick, hanging out with his pals isn’t the same. But what can they do? A kid-friendly story of silliness, sadness, and solidarity.

John lives for that satisfying clink of dominoes as they topple in a perfectly timed rhythm of his own design. His sister thinks he’s a dork, but all he cares about is setting the world record for knocking down dominoes -- that and hanging out with his best friends at school. But when his closest friend, Dom, gets sick and ends up in the hospital, John and the gang are left behind, wondering what to do for him. Author Sally Murphy shows what a group of friends, together with an unlikely ally, will do to keep the world of one of their own from toppling.