Ava is a character I can really identify with. She's a worrier. What-if's aren't about good things... what if I go to an audition and I'm amazing, what if I go on the field trip and it's great, what if I sit at the lunch table and make new friends. What-if's are fast spiraling scenarios of doom. What if I go to the audtions, and I fall on my face, and everyone sees, and everyone makes fun of me, and I get an awful nickname and no one ever wants to be my friends again. What if I go on the field trip and my harness breaks, and I fall, and I get really hurt, and the injuries cost a lot of money, and that makes my parents fight, and they get a divorce, and I have to live in two different household for the rest of my life. What-ifs are not magic, they are awful. 
 Enter a magic pencil that can give you (almost) all the answers. The answers to Ava's math test? The pencil has them. Who has a crush on Ava's best friend? The pencil knows. Before long, though, the questions turn into more questions, and Ava is caught in needing to know, even when she finds out that maybe having all of the answers isn't the best thing in the world. 
 I loved this book. There were times I wanted to shout at Ava, ask the pencil this! Ask it that! Hello!!!! ASK! Mostly, though, I enjoyed watching Ava make her own choices and come up with her own questions. 
 This book tackles families and their dynamics, and anxiety in children. I think that many adults as well as children can benefit from reading a book from this perspective. Highly recommend! 
 (view spoiler)[ Trigger Warnings Character death, and cancer are in this book! (hide spoiler)]