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The best thing here is Konigsburg's depiction of relationship between Jeanmarie and Malcolm Soo. She's unbelievably skilled at creating convincing fictional versions of bookish, precocious pre-pubescents. She gets all the self-satisfaction, dependence on half-understood facts and concepts, and, most of all, the vulnerability and underlying desire for companionship. The banter between Jeanmarie and Malcolm is funny and note-perfect. There's a lot more going on in this book's plot, and the peripheral weirdos that Konigsburg throws in are as intriguing as anything in Louise Fitzhugh or Joan Aiken.
