Plays Well with Others

In her fiction debut, Brickman (Baby, Unplugged: One Mother’s Search for Balance, Reason, and Sanity in the Digital Age) offers a bitingly funny, relatable, and moving story that peels back the cutthroat competition of the New York City kindergarten scene, exploring just how far some parents are willing to go to get their young children into the most prestigious schools. Annie Lewin, a work-from-home mother of three children all under the age of five, with a husband who’s always gone at work, exhaustedly goes to great lengths to get her oldest son Sam into a top-ranking kindergarten. Once a New York Times journalist, Annie is now a parenting advice columnist, and she believes herself above the ridiculous and petty scene other mothers take so seriously. Then she finds that even she isn’t above lying if it means helping her son get ahead. Narrator Eva Kaminsky offers a nuanced presentation, skillfully voicing Annie and a full cast of secondary characters, including Annie’s young son.