Sweet and wholesome, Lety Out Loud is a story about loyalty and friendship.  Heading into sixth grade, Lety and her two best friends, Kennedy and Brisa, have signed up for Furry Friends Animal Shelter summer camp.  The camp assigns different tasks for the campers and Lety is eager to become a Shelter Scribe, someone who writes the witty little blurbs to describe the dogs and cats that are up for adoption.  It’s a crucial job that helps get the pets into forever homes and though Lety is still a new English-language learner, she wants to try to both help the animals and improve her English. Mean-boy Henry however has other ideas and thinks his superior reading and writing skills should make him scribe.  The campers cook up a contest to see whether Henry or Lety’s animal profiles get the most animals adopted. The competition makes Lety uncomfortable but she can’t help getting pulled in. Working alongside Henry also has some interesting outcomes, the most important is finding out that Henry is struggling with a family issue and his grumpiness is because his dog was left behind when his parents split up.  He misses his dog like an ache and Lety can’t help but try to improve the situation. Lety is a great friend and frequently thinks of others before herself which also makes her a great candidate to be a pet owner. She’s had her eye on Spike, a rascal of a dog, since the beginning of camp but now needs to prove to the shelter director (who has found out about the competition and is none too pleased), her family and herself.  A nice addition to upper elementary or middle grade collections where animal fiction is popular. There is also the opportunity to use this novel to highlight how hard ELL students work to better themselves in school despite disdain and mockery from classmates.  

Reviewed by Suzanne Dix, Westbrook Middle School, Westbrook