The Trouble with Heroes

By Kate Messner. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2025. 368 pages. $17.99/hardcover; $10.99/paperback (available in July); $12.59/eBook.

Kate Messner’s newest middle-grade novel beautifully and heart-wrenchingly digs into serious subjects like post-traumatic stress disorder, 9/11, the COVID pandemic, and survivorship. Through creative and engaging story-in-verse, Messner tells the story of 13-year-old Finn Connelly, a boy in trouble. When we meet him at the beginning of the book, Finn is failing seventh grade at his school in Lake Placid, N.Y., and he has been arrested for vandalism in a nearby cemetery. He kicked over a headstone belonging to Edna Grace Thomas, “Queen of the High Peaks” and “Beloved Trail Mother to Thousands”—a fact he didn’t realize at the time but one that quickly becomes serendipitous.

Finn’s story is told through various means: newspaper clippings, poetry assignments for school, text message exchanges (including photos), and even cookie recipes. At the heart of the story is a boy who is hurting. His English teacher, Ms. Garcia, has given him the assignment of writing 20 poems about heroes in order to pass the class. Edna Grace Thomas’s daughter has told him that to escape court, payment for the headstone, and juvenile detention, he can instead hike the 46 High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains with Edna’s dog, Seymour; and a rotating group of volunteers. He has one summer, 12 weeks, to complete both of these projects.

Woven into the story is information about Finn’s firefighter dad, a “hero” famous for rescuing people from the Twin Towers on September 11, who later worked as a paramedic and died during the early days of the pandemic in New York City. Over the summer, Finn discovers that his dad had connections to Edna Grace Thomas, her daughter, some of the hiking volunteers, and the High Peaks themselves. As Finn struggles through his hikes, reflecting on his journey in poetry, he begins to better understand not only himself but also his deceased father.

As a hiker who has climbed Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks (the tallest of the High Peaks), I was impressed by Messner’s realistic depiction of the rugged trails, difficult climbs, and sometimes euphoric peaks. It’s clear how much she loves those mountains: she is an Adirondack “46er” herself. As a Friends school teacher who always connects lessons back to the SPICES testimonies, I find this story most resonates with the importance of community. Alone in the beginning, Finn slowly builds a found family that believes in him and helps him begin to heal and believe in himself. I look forward to sharing this book with my students.

---

Julia Copeland teaches at Greene Street Friends School in Philadelphia, Pa.