Second to None

by Destiny Howell

A hilarious conspiracy thriller perfect for fans of Gordon Korman and Stuart Gibbs.

In it to win it.

Every school has their number the class president, the first chair in band, the spelling bee champion. And behind every high rolling high achiever? A kid in second place.

Twelve-year-old DJ has a reputation for being the go-to kid for solving just about any problem. Need help getting an unfair teacher or bully off your back? DJ is your guy. He knows the social order of Ella Fitzgerald Middle school like the back of his hand. So when the usual winners start losing — all at the same time — he knows something is wrong. Very wrong.

With the help of his usual crew, Audrey, Monty, and Connor, DJ is determined to get to the bottom of what’s happening. Maybe it’s all in his head. Or maybe there’s a conspiracy at work. DJ and his friends will have to figure it out — before the school saboteur comes for them.

Genres: Middle Grade

334 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 3, 2024

Reviews

[Victoria brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

This school wide conspiracy was so fun and well written! the story kept me guessing the whole book and it was so fun to be back with the crew. Really enjoyed seeing more of Monty and Audrey in this book and more Mariposa

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

D.J. has a crew who can be hired to do whatever needs to be done; when Siena Chase's sister gets sick and the unreasonable Mr. Kind won't give her more time to take a math test, he puts his people in place to arrange a plausible way for the teacher to lose the test, since his policy is to give 100% to anyone whose paper is lost. He has Monty for muscle, his best friend Conor, and Audrey (on whom he has a bit of a crush), for the "face". His nemesis is Lucky, who runs a lotto and lends money, but Lucky broke his leg in a skiing accident and Mariposa is now running the show. One of the worst things that can happen at Ella Fitzgerald Middle School is to be mentioned on the announcements as a "Rocket Booster", and Lucky's group is able to make this happen due to their office connections; D.J. had to mastermind stealing tickets from the local Starcade to pay off Conor's debt to Lucky to avoid this fate. D.J. gets client referrals, as well as office passes, from David, who is a peer counselor, and is wary of the "Space Cadets" who are office helpers but often serve as spies. D.J., who had a scheme go badly wrong at his old school, is dismayed when a former classmate shows up at his new school, and when he finds broken number one pencils circulating in the school, he feels like something is afoot. His investigation uncovers a lot of the seedy underbelly of competition, tainting everything from the illegal gaming in the computer lab to scandals with the spelling bee and the art contest. When Choi, the local purveyor of black market candy is busted and Royce moves in, D.J. finds out that there is a group called the BPS behind these things. Is Mariposa running it? With the annual Snow Princess competition on the line, D.J. and his associates work together with Mariposa to find out who is really rigging contests across the school and unseating students who are usually number one.
Strengths: It's hard to find humorous books for middle grade readers, and this certainly had a lot of funny circumstances. D.J. is a well meaning kid who has a Robin Hood kind of attitude when dealing with his classmates, and tries to fight on the side of good. I loved the idea that there was a group that could arrange somehow for the underdogs to take first place in various competitions; it's so true that chairs in band, team captains, and other positions are often fought over by the same couple of kids. The cover on this is great and will remind readers of Gordon Korman books.
Weaknesses: This requires a LOT of suspension of disbelief. While I was a hall monitor in middle school, I've not seen one since, and there's no way that a student would be able to issue a pass to get another student out of class. Still, all in the name of a good grade level appropriate heist novel. This is a little on the long side.
What I really think: This is a good choice for readers who liked this author's High Score, or other Donald Westlake knock offs like Rylander's The Fourth Stall, Ferraiolo's The Big Splash or Johnson's The Great Greene Heist.

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The main part of this review is not related to the plot of the story, instead it is a wish that maybe the author(s) and/or publisher will see and might become a reality. First, let's discuss this specific book.

If it is possible this was even better than the first book! Now, I will say sometimes I forget these characters are supposed to be in middle school, because they sound like they should be, at a minimum in high school, due to the sophistication level of their machinations and operations. While I cannot approve of her borderline vicious behavior, Mariposa's interactions/thoughts on one of DJ's friends was cute. Overall, it was a great story!

Now, I want to discuss the main part of this review. This story made me really want a crossover between Destiny Howell's DJ and crew with Varian Johnson's Jackson Greene and company, because I think it would be awesome. DJ and Jackson are similar in terms of what they do, but I think they are not completely the same character that it wouldn't be redundant to have these two together. It could start off like any similar character crossover story, where they think the other one is the "bad" guy and then they join forces to completely dominate. In terms of story, I am not sure how they would be in the same place. One solution would be some sort of field trip by their schools and that is how they get to be in the same place. Maybe it is like the crossover plot of iCarly and Victorious, where you have a new character crossover lines that put both DJ and Jackson on their radar that has them join forces. I do not know what the logistics are on the writing side would be, but both Destiny Howell and Varian Johnson both have Scholastic as their publisher which, in theory, should help.

Verdict: This was a great story and this story once again reinforces my desire to have a crossover that may never happen.

[Jamie Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though termed a 'standalone sequel' to High Score (2022( by Destiny Howell, I felt I needed to have read High Score to get all the backmatter that gets thrown into the prose throughout this high mystery book. That being said and despite feeling a little lost for not having read High Score, I felt the book would pull in mystery fans looking to up their spy games. DJ, Monty, Connor, and Audrey work together as a team to try and right wrongs against other students in their middle school, presumably because DJ feels guilty for things in did in the past. He's the brains, Connor the Techie, Monty the muscle, and Audry the face. One day, DJ finds a broken number one pencil in his locker with the note BPS taped to it, and though he was wanting to take a break from their helping shennigans, the wheels in his brain start turning and won't shut off. It isn't long before his crew discovers that the number 1 pencil stands for the people that always come out on top have been knocked down to the number 2 or lower spot by BPS and now the crew is on the chase to find out who is behind the dethronings. This means partnering with people, like Mariposa who is Lucky's number, who bottlerocket people's social standing so they can never show their faces anywhere at school again and trade deals with tickets from the local Starcade. The interesting thing is DJ's crew depend and work well with each other, each character standing on their own accountability and are interesting on their own and how they merge together in the crew. They talk about specific gambling, thieving, and con manuevers by name as they work toward figuring who is beind BPS and what their end game is.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

While technically this book is a stand alone, it does involve a group of kids from a previous book, so it helps to have read that one so you have the background knowledge, otherwise they/it can get a bit confusing.
DJ and his friends are a bit like middle school Robin Hoods. They can help with unfair teachers or bullies. Then they get clued in that something odd is happening where lots of second place people are suddenly becoming number one. Is it just a coincidence or is there something devious going on?

[Tumelo Moleleki · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was an okay read but I must say that in my mind I could not see the characters as people young enough to still be doing seventh grade. They felt much older. I suppose a character in a story will always be precious and make astute observations. As a kids book it feels a little like it is heavy on the maturity side. It became quite annoying towards the end and a rehabilitated bad kid being a paragon of good sense or knowing right from wrong is rather hypocritical.

[Maria · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book - sounded like a good plot BUT it was too confusing with all these characters being thrown in too fast without any explanation of who they were. Story was jumbled - author should have explained more, more slowly too. Didn’t finish

P.S. there were only 2 reviews prior to me getting this book — should have waited for more feedback. I’ll keep that in mind for next time

[Leiana Day]

1. Meh
2. Why is there shipping

[Amelia Venjoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read but I preferred the first book. The time span of this story was longer and held less page-turning momentum