Starting middle school after summer seems like a drag for four students. Jake hasn't grown but his friends have. A Chinese girl Dorothy wonders, if fruit and vegetables are so important, how come the school vending machine is stocked with candy and snacks? She'd rather manga than maths. Hannah, Jake's older sister, is obsessed with boys and clothes, just like all her girl pals. Danny, Jake's best friend, is also the son of the family's gardener, and he's Mexican with a bunch of local kids to hang out with when Jake's away with the family. All four attend the same public school - some because it has good Honours classes - and we get stories from each.

TRASH CAN DAYS follows Danny as he decides not to get involved with any gangs, because he can already see antagonistic interactions between schoolmates for that reason. He gets to go with Jake to the set of a Hollywood film, because Jake's father is the producer. School seems petty and banal after that experience. Hannah has an idealised notion of what will happen if she lies down on a handsome boy's bed, and when he puts his hands on her she immediately thinks of him as a creep and calls her mother to take her home. The boy spreads stories about her and she loses her friends. Jake feels a bit happier in a writing club and doesn't realise that Dorothy, who daydreams her life away and composes fantasy stories, has a crush on him; he's hardly noticed she's in the club.

Teddy Steinkellner intersperses the action with pages of text-speak between kids, memos between teachers requesting funding for courses, and school notices about classes and timetables. I could have done without the texting and I thought the rest could have been covered by some dialogue. But maybe young students would relate to it more than I did. Growing up presents many challenges such as peer pressure, and the diverse group of characters shows how different people might react. I found this book less amusing than 'The Elephant of Surprise' by Brent Hartinger and more like 'Twerp' by Mark Goldblatt, but the ending is more serious than either of those and a real life lesson has to be learned. TRASH CAN DAYS is not your average kids' adventure and young adults everywhere can read it and reconsider their activities at school.