Lizard Boy #2: The Most Perfect Summer Ever by Jonathan Hill

Readers who’ve already enjoyed Book 1 will likely warm up to this quicker than I did, but once I realized this wasn’t just escapist (sub)urban fantasy, I was all in!

The Lizard Boy series revolves around the titular middle schooler, Tommy Tomkins, who fled with his mom and older sister Tiffany from the underground realm of Elberon. Assuming human guise, they settled in Eagle Valley, building new lives for themselves. Tommy eventually became close friends with five other kids, all of whom are outsiders for one reason or another. There’s alt/hippie Scarlett, one of two humans in their group, along with the other human, Dung, whose family is from Vietnam. There’s Sara the robot, Greg the Sasquatch, and Allie whose body is composed entirely of snakes. All of the non-humans pass easily as human, having learned how to shapeshift long ago.

Alas for the friends, Dung is about to move with his family back to Vietnam. Scarlett is particularly upset by this, and vows to make this last summer they all have together absolutely perfect. Things get off to a pretty good start when Greg shows the others the cool treehouse his older brothers built in the woods but have since outgrown. Using that as their headquarters, the friends plan the perfect summer shenanigans. Only trouble is, the outside world has a big way of intruding.

Whether it’s Greg’s grandpa’s worsening dementia, Tiffany’s love life woes, or the fearmongering of a vlogger for the Eagle Valley Paranormal, the kids have plenty of unavoidable problems to deal with. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, as each of these issues subtly serves as an introduction to deeper issues of acceptance and community.

I absolutely cried as each member of the group has to deal with the genuine emotional fallout of growing up, moving apart and learning how to keep and encourage the ties of friendship and community that are so vastly underrated in individualistic societies. And I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with being an individual either! If anything, both this book and I agree that while there are definitely agreements and rules and laws in place to maintain civil society, noncomformity should absolutely be encouraged. People shouldn’t be feared and shunned merely because of how they look or talk or where they’re from. The healthiest communities are those that embrace the spirit of multiculturalism, because they can draw from more and various strengths, traditions and knowledge bases than insular ones can.

I wish this wasn’t a message that needed to be repeated so often and so vehemently, but these are dark times for many of us. Books like this help remind readers, young and old, that everyone has feelings and families and backgrounds, and that the only people to be feared and subsequently shunned are those who try to make you fear and shun others by reducing them to beings who do not deserve empathy (or who try to tell you that empathy isn’t real or, worse, a sin.) Plus, Lizard Boy #2 does it in a way that is super readable and super relatable to anyone who’s ever had to move away from home, or had trouble fitting in, or had to hide who they really are in order to not make waves, even from the people who are supposed to love them the most. This is by far the best graphic novel for Middle Grade readers I’ve read so far this year, with charming art to accompany the powerful, meaningful story of friendship and acceptance.

Lizard Boy #2: The Most Perfect Summer Ever by Jonathan Hill was published April 8 2025 by Walker Books US and is available from all good booksellers, including