My son is a man of few words, but he wanted to review Help Me! Help Me! by Eileen Wesel. He said, "It's like 'The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf,' but nothing gets eaten in this one, which makes it kid-appropriate."
I don't think I could critique it better, but I'll try to piggyback on his sentiment.
10-year-old Tyler is bored on a car trip and mad at his new stepdad for not letting him have the charger for his device. He decides to play a little game to pass the time. He looks at strangers making a scared face and mouths "Help Me! Help Me!" Only his game turns into something much more serious than he intended. The game causes trouble, but at the heart of it, a very different call for help forces stepfather and stepson to reevaluate how they feel about and treat each other. It is very much an echo of the boy who cried wolf story, modernized, and set in the picturesque Deep South, with cotton fields, old farmhouses, and good, soulful people.
There really are no cons to this book. It takes a timeless tale and reimagines it in modern times. The characters are realistic, well-rendered, and not stereotypically portrayed. Tyler's POV lends an air of mystery for children--what will happen?--and a level of irony to the adult reading it to their child--what will he learn? The setting's description was so detailed, particularly about cotton picking, that it was extensive research or perhaps done by the author herself at one point. It is not common in modern times to not rely on machinery, so as Tyler learns what his stepdad's ancestors had to do, so does the child reader. There are many deep themes, but the best part was the child and the stepdad both are in the wrong and both learn a valuable lesson that will help them flourish.
Wesel's Help Me! Help Me! is a perfect retelling of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" in a modern southern setting that includes diverse characters going through universal struggles and learning experiences. The largest perk is its didactic nature for both (step)parent and child.