King of the Lost and Found.

Dave Jenkinson is a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the author of the “Portraits” section of Emergency Librarian.

As in The Losers’ Club, Lekich’s previous novel for an older middle school audience, the central character, in addition to having a medical condition, is not part of his high school’s in-crowd. Short and prone to sneezing, fainting, and nosebleeds, Vancouver’s Raymond J. Dunne is a grade 10 student at Percy Hargrave High where, under the supportive guidance of vice-principal Bludhowski, also known as the Bloodhound, Raymond’s principal claim to fame is that he is the “King” in charge of the school’s lost and found closet.

Raymond’s social status begins its gradual transformation when he encounters Jack Alexander, a popular grade 12 transfer student who accidentally discovers that the school’s builder and namesake constructed a hidden bomb shelter within the school, with one of its entrances being a disguised door within Raymond’s “kingdom.” Jack suggests that he and Raymond transform this classroom-sized space into a paying, lunchtime secret club for the in-crowd.

Older fans of Gordon Korman’s books will appreciate Lekich’s writing, which contains a zany cast of likeable adolescent characters and adults, the latter principally being the school’s administrators. While the theme of school social structures predominates, the meaning of friendship is a close second. Lekich divides Raymond’s story into three parts, with the first solidly establishing Raymond as a social outcast, the second tracing the creation and operation of the pair’s lucrative business, and the final portion covering the inevitable discovery of their unauthorized hideaway and the duo’s ensuing punishments. Recommended.