Honestly Elliott

Honestly Elliott is a middle grade coming-of-age novel written by Gillian McDunn and published in 2022. The novel follows Elliott, a sixth grader with ADHD and a penchant for cooking. Elliott struggles with his best friend Malcolm’s absence and with his changing family dynamics as he prepares to welcome a new half-brother into his life. He clings to cooking and to his idol, chef Griffin Connor, but as Elliott makes new friends, he learns to make do with what he has rather than wishing for something different.

McDunn is a celebrated children’s author who focuses on themes of family and friendship in her novels. Her other notable children’s books include The Queen Bee and Me (2014), Caterpillar Summer (2019), These Unlucky Stars (2021), When Sea Becomes Sky (2023), and Trouble at the Tangerine (2024). Honestly Elliott has been recognized by several organizations, winning the 2023 Schneider Family Book Award Honor Book, the AudioFile Earphones Award, and the Junior Tome Book Award, as well as being nominated for several others, including the Georgia State Book Award, Delaware Diamond Award, and Maryland BlackEyed Susan Award.

This guide uses the e-book version of Honestly Elliott published by Bloomsbury Children’s Books in March 2022.

Content warning: This guide discusses ableism toward people with ADHD.

Plot Summary

Elliott Quigley Sawyer is alone at his father Mark and pregnant stepmother Kate’s house when he decides to break the rules and cook in their kitchen. Mark and Kate are upset when Elliott makes a mess. Having forgotten to pack earlier in the day, Elliott rushes to gather his belongings, and Mark lectures him on the drive to Elliot’s mother Nina’s house. Mark talks with Nina, and Nina later explains that Mark wants Elliott to pay him back for an expensive incident earlier in the year. Having intended to use his saved money to pay for a summer culinary camp, Elliott is determined to earn enough to pay his dad back and still attend his camp.

At school, the students are assigned a large group business project. They have to come up with a business plan that they will present at the annual Avery Local festival. If they come up with a product, they can sell it and keep the profits. Elliott rushes to his lunch friends, Drew, Gilbert, Victor, and Kunal, but they don’t want to work with Elliott. Another student, Maribel Martinez, has a small altercation with her group. Noticing that Maribel is upset, Elliott asks if she wants to work with him. To his surprise, she agrees, and he worries that he will let her down. The rest of the day is difficult; Elliott realizes that he forgot his math homework at Mark and Kate’s, and lunch is awkward after having been rejected by his friends. That evening, he cries on the phone to Kate. However, Kate also tells him that she loved the food he made.

The next day, Elliott attends his therapy session with Dr. Gilmore, during which he refuses to discuss The Incident for which his father wants repayment. He then goes out for dinner with Mark and Kate and advises them on what to order, and he feels good about helping them. Afterwards, Mark agrees that if Elliott can earn enough extra money to pay for The Incident, he can still go to culinary camp.

Back at school, Elliott is upset to find that he accidentally agreed to baking gluten-free pies with Maribel; he had been distracted because his ADHD was pulling his mind in different directions. Maribel shares that she has celiac disease, which is why she can’t eat gluten. Her original group refused to make their cupcakes gluten free. Elliott dislikes baking because his chef hero Griffin Connor doesn’t respect baking, but he comes around to the idea, thinking that it will be easy.

That weekend, Mark and Kate bring up the baby’s middle name. Thinking that they want to use Quigley—the middle name shared by Elliott and Mark—Elliott gets upset. To help Elliott process his feelings, Mark asks him to identify one emotion, and Elliott says that he is scared about the new baby.

Maribel comes over to practice making pies. She agrees to make the filling while Elliott focuses on the crust. Elliott refuses to use a recipe because Griffin Connor doesn’t like them, and he struggles; meanwhile, Maribel finds a recipe and has an easy time making the filling. When the pie is done, the filling is delicious, but the crust is almost inedible. Elliott snaps, blaming the gluten-free flour and arguing that he let Maribel have the easy job. Upset, Maribel leaves.

At school, Maribel refuses to talk to Elliott, and during therapy, Dr. Gilmore helps Elliott realize that he should apologize to Maribel. Elliott runs into Mark while leaving the therapist’s office, but he does not think much of it, assuming that his dad was dealing with a billing issue. It later turns out that Mark is also having therapy.

Elliott apologizes to Maribel. They realize that their pies are too expensive, so they make plans to find a way to lower their costs. They look at old cookbooks and find a recipe for desperation pie that uses vinegar and other staple ingredients. Given the low cost of the ingredients, the two of them decide to give desperation pies a try. Later, while cooking, Elliott has an epiphany when he remembers a donut he once ate with Kunal; he wants to turn a gluten-free crumble into a pie crust.

Maribel and Elliott practice the desperation pies with crumb crusts. While the pies are baking, Elliott mentions his therapy and tells Maribel about The Incident—he threw baseballs through the basement window at Mark and Kate’s house after they told him about the baby. Maribel sympathizes with Elliott. The pies turn out delicious.

During his next session with Dr. Gilmore, Elliott discusses The Incident, feeling better afterwards. Later, Mark asks how he can help Elliott, who has been struggling to cope with his best friend Malcolm’s absence. Mark agrees to consider letting Elliott play Kingdom of Krull, a videogame he was previously barred from playing, so that he can bond with his four lunch friends who play the game.

Maribel has a dental appointment one morning, so Elliott is sent to work with Kunal’s group. His friends give him the idea to make mini pies, which would be easier for people to carry and more lucrative. The night before the Avery Local, Maribel and Elliott make boxes and boxes of pies. Afterward, Elliott finds Kate lying on the couch with swollen feet and a headache. With the help of his mother, Elliott helps Kate get to the hospital, where she is diagnosed with preeclampsia. As he waits, Elliott sees a large family awaiting a birth, and he is jealous. He talks with Nina about how she doesn’t want to remarry and how she isn’t lonely, but Elliott is. Kate stabilizes but remains under observation.

The next day is the Avery Local. Elliott and Maribel set up their booth and are worried at first because it is far out in the field. However, as people start coming out, they sell out of pies, and each of them pockets almost $500.

Kate’s blood pressure does not stabilize, so the doctors help deliver Jonah early. Two days later, Elliott meets his brother and is overwhelmed with love. He is also pleased to hear that Jonah’s middle name will be Elliott, not Quigley. Elliott learns to stop wishing for things that he doesn’t have and to love his family how it is. He grows closer with his father, and he and his mother form a friend group with Maribel’s and Kunal’s family, which gives Elliott the chance to cook for groups.