Grueling admissions process, exorbitant tuition, and genius classmates. Welcome to Bradley, the Upper East Side school where Sean Benning's eight-year-old son is getting the best education Sean's father-in-law can buy. Sean works a tabloid job and neglects his art to be a good father to Toby, especially since his wife left abruptly at the start of the school year. The more Sean is pressured by the school to put the struggling Toby on medication to control his behavior, the more uneasy he feels about Toby's (and his own) ability to keep up with this group of impossibly wealthy New Yorkers. Out of Sean's concern for his son, anger at his wife's abandonment, admiration of Toby's new teacher, and a couple of traumatic, eye-opening events, the debut author has woven an engagingly believable narrative with just the right amount of snark. VERDICT This compelling story of high-pressure early academics in Manhattan will appeal to readers of Tom Perrotta, Jennifer Haigh, and other authors whose novels about families in a particular segment of society illuminate the larger human condition. [Hruska is the publisher of Soho Press—Ed.]—Laurie A. Cavanaugh, Wareham Free Lib., MA

All Sean Benning wants is for his eight-year-old son, Toby, to be happy. But competition is cutthroat at Manhattan's fictional Bradley School, and single dad and struggling artist Sean doesn't fit the Bradley helicopter parent mold. In Hruska's witty, piercingly relevant debut novel, she pulls back the curtain on the lengths to which people will go to produce successful children. After his wife leaves the family abruptly, Sean becomes Toby's sole caregiver, while juggling his day job at a celebrity tabloid and his own pursuit of art. Not only is he the odd man out financially (his in-laws pay the tuition) but when the school suggests that Toby, whose behavior is "becoming an issue," should be medicated, Sean learns that he's one of the few parents with a child not on drugs. Though Toby seems normally exuberant for his age, Sean is unnerved by the pressure exerted by Bradley and digs deeper into the use of Ritalin with the help of a sympathetic teacher. When tragedy befalls one of Toby's classmates, Sean becomes even more determined to uncover the reasons behind the medicating of the student body. Hruska perfectly captures the prep school milieu that crackles with rumors, money, and the hunger for success, while creating a wholly sympathetic father-son relationship that ranks love over Ivy League potential. Agent: Stephanie Abou, Foundry Literary + Media. (Oct.)