One Word, Six LettersReview posted August 11, 2026.
Henry Holt and Company, 2026. 213 pages.
Review written August 11, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
I've got a soft spot for Adib Khorram's writing because his Morris-Award-winning debut novel, Darius the Great Is Not Okay, was published the year I was on the Newbery Committee. Although Darius did not win the Newbery (and is really more of a young adult book than a children's book), it was a 2018 Sonderbooks Stand-out - in a year that I read ALL the best children's and young adult books of the year and read most of them at least twice. So, yeah, I love his writing.
This book is about the effects of bullying language. The word referred to in the title is never printed on the page, but the cover tells us it starts with F and we know that one of the students is afraid people are saying it about him because they think he's gay.
We've got two perspectives in this book, and both are presented in present tense, addressed to "you." Usually I hate present-tense novels, let alone second-person - but Adib Khorram pulls it off, and it didn't bother me a bit. I'll give you a taste with the starting paragraph of each character.
For Dayton:
You know you've messed up when you get marched into the principal's office.
For Farshid:
You're so used to people saying your name wrong, you don't realize it at first. After all, people have been messing up Farshid for as long as people have been saying it. Even the teachers who get it (mostly) right can't quite do the ar, which is sort of halfway between air and are.
The situation is that both boys are freshmen in high school. They barely know each other, but have a class together. In an all-school assembly, a visiting poet was speaking, and a guy named Reggie bet Dayton to shout that word. Dayton wanted the $20 to buy some food (He hadn't eaten breakfast.), so he did it. And it affected his whole school year. And Reggie never paid up.
Farshid wasn't singled out by Dayton, but he's afraid everyone was thinking of him. He insists to himself that he's not gay. He focuses on lifting weights, working out, and watching his diet. His best friend, a girl named Nour, drags him to the Rainbow Coalition to show solidarity after the incident in the assembly. Farshid hopes people know he's going as an ally.
Dayton gets in-school suspension the same time as another kid, named Brody. Dayton's told to write an apology letter, and he knows he only did it for the bet - but no one else at school sees it that way. Dayton's former friends don't want anything to do with him, so his new best friend is Brody, who isn't as picky about his language and doesn't hold that mistake against him.
We go through the whole school year with these two boys. The incident has surprisingly long-lasting effects - which they eventually have to face up to.
And it's all written engagingly, so you care about both boys, even the one who shouted the slur, as he learns a lesson about trying to repair your mistakes.