The Thing About Jellyfish: A Middle School Novel Study Guide and Book Review

When you open some books, you just read and read.  Some books, you put down.  And for others, you grab a notebook and start jotting down sentences.  Because. They're. Just. That. Good.

This is one of those books.

The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin is part coming-of-age story, part science novel, and one of the most quietly powerful reads you can put in front of a middle schooler. If you're looking for a novel that opens real conversations about grief, friendship, and what it means to make sense of a world that doesn't always make sense, this is the one.

What is The Thing About Jellyfish About?

The story follows Suzy, a seventh grader who refuses to believe that her former best friend Franny drowned by accident. "It just happened." "It was an accident." None of that rings true for Suzy, and so she sets out to prove otherwise.

What makes this novel unusual is its structure. The story is told from Suzy's point of view and weaves in conversations she has with her memory of Franny. Her 7th grade science teacher, Mrs. Turston, teaches the stages of a science experiment and Ali Benjamin turns those stages into metaphors for Suzy's own process of grieving and searching. There's also a lot of actual information about jellyfish, which sounds quirky until you realize how perfectly it works.

Oh, and Suzy decides to stop talking. Completely.

Add a divorced mom and dad, a brother with his boyfriend, and a protagonist who processes the world through science instead of feelings, and you have something that sounds unusual but is incredibly powerful.

Why Teachers Love Teaching The Thing About Jellyfish:

This novel works beautifully as a whole-class read-aloud for grades 5–8, and here's why teachers keep coming back to it:

It opens a door to hard conversations. Grief, loss of friendship, and feeling like an outsider are all themes middle schoolers are navigating in real time. This book gives them language for those experiences without being heavy-handed.

The science structure is a gift for ELA teachers. The idea that a science experiment is a metaphor for how we process life is genuinely teachable. It bridges ELA and science in a natural, meaningful way that students notice.

Suzy is a protagonist students remember. She's smart, odd, determined, and doesn't fit neatly into any social category. Students who feel on the margins of their peer group often see themselves in her.

The writing itself is worth studying. Ali Benjamin's sentence-level craft is remarkable. I started reading this book with a notebook beside me to jot down sentences. That's how good the writing is. There's real material here for a craft study on voice, structure, and figurative language.

Themes in The Thing About Jellyfish for Classroom Discussions:

These are the themes that tend to generate the richest conversations:

Grief and the need for explanations. Suzy can't accept that Franny's death was random. Her insistence on finding a cause is very human and very discussable. Why do we need things to make sense?

Friendship and its loss. The novel doesn't just deal with Franny's death; it deals with the fact that Suzy and Franny had already grown apart before she died. That layer of guilt and unresolved feeling is something many students recognize.

Being different. Suzy is a kid who doesn't communicate the way other people do. She's not neurotypical in the traditional sense, though the book never labels her. This is a wonderful entry point for discussing neurodiversity, empathy, and how we treat people who are "different."

Science as a way of knowing. What does it mean to form a hypothesis and test it? Can you apply the scientific method to your own life? These questions come up organically from the text.

Discussion Questions for The Thing About Jellyfish

These work well for literature circles, Socratic seminars, or journaling:

1. Why do you think Suzy stops talking? What is she trying to communicate by going silent?
2. How does the scientific method parallel what Suzy is doing emotionally throughout the novel?
3. Why does Suzy become so focused on jellyfish specifically? What do they represent to her?
4. Suzy and Franny had grown apart before Franny died. How does that complicate Suzy's grief?
5. How does Mrs. Turston influence Suzy? What does a good teacher look like in this novel?
6. At the end of the book, has Suzy found what she was looking for? What do you think she's learned?

The Thing About Jellyfish Novel Study Guide

If you want to take your students deeper into this book, I created a complete novel study guide that includes comprehension questions, vocabulary work, and activities that connect to the themes above. The Thing About Jellyfish novel studyguide

This is a book worth spending real time with, and having a structured guide makes it easier to do that without building everything from scratch.