It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds

Long-winded digressions interrupt the flow of the storytelling, and it takes almost half the book to get to the zany situations that provide most of the laughs. Ultimately, the buildup to the to-be-continued ending doesn’t quite deliver. The kids take action to prepare for whatever is happening in their new world without parents, gathering necessities from their neighbors’ empty houses and trying to keep each other’s spirits up with dad jokes and teasing, except in the truly gentle spaces where they admit their fears to each other. After a power outage, Eddie links up with four other left-behind kids, and they all enjoy fun times until the streetlights come on-but none of their families return from the party. However, when his mom unearths the mountain of smelly laundry that he’s ignored for the entire summer, Eddie is left home in a literal funk, with nothing to wear but his glow-in-the-dark pineapple swim trunks. Twelve-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway is ready to have a blast at Beach Bash with his friends-it’s the day when everyone in town heads to Lake Erie for great food and live music. (Apr.Epic end-of-summer plans go awry for five kids in Ohio. Agent: Beth Phelan, Gallt & Zacker Literary. Eddie’s community is predominantly Black. While the conclusion feels abrupt, Reynolds’s animated prose and eclectic characters propel this quirky summer adventure.

But once night falls and their parents don’t return from the Beach Bash, the group worries they might have to survive on their own. Then the power suddenly goes out throughout the neighborhood, and Eddie, joined by a ragtag group of kids who were also left behind, decides that if they can’t go to the party, they’ll make their own fun. When his mother uncovers his mountain of unwashed garments, though, Eddie is immediately grounded and must clean his clothes while his parents attend their Ohio town’s annual Lake Erie Beach Bash without him.

It’s been 40 days since the last day of school, and 12-year-old Eddie Gordon Holloway, diagnosed with ADHD, is proud of the plan he’s hatched: to avoid doing laundry, he will simply wear everything in his closet until he has nothing left.

It's the End of the World and I'm in My Bathing Suit by Justin A. Reynolds