Okay, so my daughter had to read "Veronica Ganz" for a class assignment, and honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect. It's about this girl, Veronica, who's basically a bully at school, but there's this smaller kid, Peter Wedemeyer, who isn't afraid of her and keeps getting the better of her. My daughter is usually into fantasy, so I thought the whole 'realistic school drama' thing might not grab her, but she actually seemed pretty interested in the whole dynamic.
What surprised me was how quickly my daughter got invested in Veronica's character. She kept talking about how Veronica acted out because she was insecure and had problems at home. There aren't any pictures, which is fine for her age. The writing is pretty straightforward, easy to follow. She did ask me a few times why Veronica was being so mean, which led to some good conversations about empathy and understanding different perspectives. It wasn't a super long book, thank goodness, the word count is just under 30,000, so she finished it in a few evenings.
I peeked at her AR test stuff, and it's at a 4.9 reading level with 4.0 points. Which is a pretty good deal considering how much she seemed to get out of it. So if your kid is around 4th or 5th grade, the reading level should be fine, maybe even a bit easier than some of the longer books they're assigned.
I'd say this is a good pick if your kid likes stories about school, friendships, and figuring out how to deal with difficult emotions. If your kid is super sensitive to any kind of bullying, you might want to read it with them or be prepared to talk about it. But my daughter really seemed to enjoy it, and it sparked some interesting discussions between us, so I'd call it a win.