bullying

The Way I Say it

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by Nancy Tandon
First sentence: “I can’t say my name.”
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Content: There is pretty explicit bullying, a child gets in a bike accident and ends up with a brain injury, and there is talk of crushes and liking girls. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Rory has problems saying his /r/ sounds, which is why he has a hard time saying his name. He’s in 6th grade, which he feels is a bit too old to be in speech therapy with the school pathologist, but since he can’t say the r-sound correctly, off he goes. He’s bullied for not talking right, and even though he’s a brilliant 11-year-old guitar player who likes classic metal /rock) he’s still shunned. Especially by his ex-best friend Brent.

The book goes over the whole sixth-grade year (which is a bit excessive, I think, for a middle-grade book), following Rory as he learns to navigate 6th grade without his best friend. He makes new friends, he enjoyed speech class because of his super cool teacher, Mr. Simms, and after Brent has a bike accident (he’s hit y a drunk driver) and ends up in speech class with Rory, he learns to maybe find a way to get past the betrayal he felt from becsue of Brent’s actions. Oh, plus there’s a bully.

I felt like, reading this book, I could play Middle Grade Novel Trope Bingo, and get at last a bingo, if not a blackout. Magical white male teacher? Check. Magical Negro friend who is super upbeat and inspirational? Check. Cute girl, who he has a crush on but is afraid to tell her? Check. Super good at something unique, like the guitar? Check. Clueless parents (overprotective mom, and dad he can’t connect with)? Check. Bully who is “ethnic”? Check. So. many. tropes. I got so tired of trope after trope after trope. Tandon is a speech pathologist, and I could tell that she wanted to highlight some interesting and different methods to get kids to say their sounds right. But that was the only part of the book I felt she cared about. The rest of the book – from the bullying at school to the breakup with the friend, to the ineffective parents (all around – Brent’s mother made him RIDE THE BUS the day he started back at school after his accident. What parent does that?!) was just mediocre at best.

*sigh* You can’t win them all.

Class Act

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by Jerry Craft
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Others in the series: New Kid
Content: There is talk of crushes. It’s in the middle grade graphic novel section of the bookstore.

It’s the start of eighth grade at Riverdale Academy Day School, and so Jordan and Drew are no longer the new kids. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy to navigate the school culture, especially for Drew, who is a darker-skinned Black kid than Jordan. In fact one of the things I found most interesting about this book was the way Craft leaned into racisim and colorism. Jordan is a lighter-skinned Black kid, and everyone (well, white teachers) often overlooks Jordan when talking to or about the Black kids at school.

In fact, as the book follows Drew (though we still get a good dose of Liam and Jordan as well as some of the other friends they made in New Kid), Craft highlights all the little ways that Drew is battling racism in his every day life. Especially from well-meaning white people (which caused me to reflect on the myriad of ways I may have been unintentionally racist towards Black friends).

It’s a fun book, though. I enjoyed learning more about Drew and his life, and how he struggles to figure out who he really is and what he really wants. My favorite section though was when Liam and Drew visited Jordan’s family for an afternoon. I loved seeing the interactions between the adults and the kids and just experiencing Joy.

An excellent book. (And hopefully there will be more!)

Dragonsinger

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by Anne McCaffrey
First sentence: “When Menolly, daughter of Yanis Sea Holder, arrived at Harper Craft Hall, she arrived in style, aboard a bronze dragon,”
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Others in the series: Dragonsong
Content: There is some bullying. It would be in the YA section of the bookstore if we had it.

This picks up exactly where Dragonsong left off: with Menolly, discovered by Masterharper Robinton, arriving with her nine fire lizards at Harper Hall to become an apprentice. It takes place over her first week, where she makes some friends and a lot of enemies, gets into more trouble because of her fire lizards, and tries to find confidence in herself.

I think this one is better, overall, than Dragonsong, but only because there’s a lot more going on and a lot fewer awful people. In the first book, it’s Menolly against the world. In this book, Menolly makes some friends and it isn’t quite her vs. everyone. Though it seems that in McCaffrey’s world, Menolly’s enemies are mostly empty-headed girls, which bothered me. I disliked the lack of female support, and the one-dimensionalness (not a word, I know) of the other women in the book. M pointed out that most of the secondary characters are one-dimensional, but still, for all of Menolly’s talent and awesomeness and that I’m glad she learned to stick up for herself, I kind of wished she had developed more of a circle of female friends rather than becoming “one of the guys”. But, the book was published in 1977, so maybe that’s too much to ask.

At any rate, it was a fun little read.

Crush

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by Svetlana Chmakova
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Others in the series: Awkward, Brave
Content: There’s some bullying and general middle-school romance. It’s in the Middle Grade Graphic Novels section of the bookstore.

Jorge is the Big Kid at Berrybrook Middle School, the one that’s head and shoulders taller than everyone else. He doesn’t mind; he uses people’s assumptions of him (that he’s a Heavy) for good, making sure that bullies don’t pick on other kids. He’s got a group of friends he’s been friends with forever: Liv, the outgoing popular one, and Garrett, who just transferred to Berrybrook and is trying to fit in. Jorge is fine with the way things are.

But then Garrett decides to get in with the starting quarterback James’s group, and Jorge develops a crush on Liv’s friend Jazmine, and Drama breaks out in the middle school halls.

I really enjoyed this one. I think that Chmakova gets middle schoolers, and the everyday ups and downs of friendship, crushes, and belonging. I liked Jorge as a character, how he used his size to help others and how he wasn’t afraid to be an individual rather than going along with the crowd. This one was less about crushes, though, and more just about relationships, and what it takes to have a good one, whether it be friendships or romantic. Jorge wasn’t the character with the growth arc; rather, he was the rock that everything in the book revolved around, which was perfectly fine by me.

Really very, very good.

In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse

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by Joseph Marshall III
First sentence: “Jimmy McClean walked among the buffalo berry thickets along the Smoking Earth River.”
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Content: There is some bullying and talk of war. It’s in the middle grade section (grades 3-5) of the bookstore.

Jimmy McClean is half white, half Lakota, which makes him a target at his school outside the Rosebud Sioux reservation, both from the white kids and from the other Lakota kids. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever fit in, with his blue eyes and brown hair. That is, until his Lakota grandfather takes Jimmy on a road trip through Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana following the footsteps of Crazy Horse — known in his younger years as Light Hair — and learning about the life of this great warrior and leader.

This is such a good story. First off, I enjoyed the grandparent-grandchild dynamic, and I appreciated the division between present day and the historical storytelling. It wasn’t a straight “this is what Crazy Horse did here” narrative, but rather weaving the stories of Crazy Horse’s life in such a way to help Jimmy with his present day problems. I also appreciated the Lakota perspective on Crazy Horse. It’s good to remember that history books just teach the White perspective, and it’s valuable to hear these stories from another side.

It’s short, and it’s a valuable story to have around, and not just for Native representation. It’s a good reminder that history has many sides.

Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish

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by Pablo Cartaya
First sentence: “Most kids clear out of the way when I walk down the hall.”
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Review copy provided by the publisher.
Content: There’s nothing “objectionable” language or other-wise, but the main character is 14 years old, and the themes seemed a bit more mature than the usual middle grade fare. So, it’s in the YA (grades 6-8) section of the bookstore.

Marcus Vega is a very large 14 year old. He’s one of those kids that went through puberty early, and he’s the giant in the hallway. He uses this to his advantage: he charges kids for his “protection” services, walking them to school and home again and otherwise being the heavy, enforcing the principal’s rules (for a fee). The money goes home to help out his struggling single mom, and he’s also super protective of his younger brother, Charlie, who has Down Syndrome. So, it’s not out of character for Marcus to punch a kid — the school bully, Stephen — for making fun of his brother. However, it’s his word against Stephen’s, and Stephen’s parents are the super involved, high donors type, and so it’s Marcus who ends up being threatened with expulsion. Thankfully, it’s right before spring break, and Marcus’s mom decides that it’s about time for them to head to Puerto Rico to meet Marcus’s father’s (who left when Marcus was four) family.

Marcus then becomes obsessed with finding and confronting his father, if only for closure. This takes him, his mother, and his brother, all over the island, meeting different members of the extended Vega clan. But, mostly what this book becomes at this point is an extended love letter to Puerto Rico. The book starts with a blurb about the hurricanes that hit the island last year, and how many of these places in the book are no longer like Cartaya describes them. But, as a reader, you can tell the affection that Cartaya has for the island. It’s a charming, sweet, Spanish- and Puerto Rican-infused book. Sure, Marcus has a happy ending but that’s not the point of the book, I think. It’s more to raise awareness: there is a culture and a history in Puerto Rico that’s rich and rewarding and even though they’re different from us, they’re also Americans too.

And while it’s not as good as visiting Puerto Rico, it’s a good second choice.

Sheets

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by Brenna Thummler
First sentence: “It’s difficult to list, in order, the things I hate.”
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Review copy picked up at CI6
Release date: August 28, 2018
Content: There is a slight romance, and some bullying. It’ll be in the middle grade graphic novel section of the bookstore.

Marjorie Glatt’s mother has recently died and her father has gone into mourning. Which means that 13-year-old Marjorie is left taking care of everything: school, her five-year-old brother, and running the family laundromat. It’s a lot for a 13-year-old to take on, especially when one of the town’s residents, Mr. Saubertuck, keeps trying to put her out of business so he can start his 5-star spa and yoga center.

Walter is a recently deceased ghost, who doesn’t like being a ghost. So, he skips ghost town (yes, there is a ghost town!) and heads to the nearby city where he finds the Glatt’s laundromat, which turns out to be a ghost’s paradise. What they discover is that a girl and a ghost can, in fact, help each other out, and make both of their lives easier.

This is a super charming little graphic novel. It deals with a tough subject — grief and death — but in such a way that it’s accessible to kids and gets them to think  (and laugh!) in ways that a prose novel wouldn’t have. I love Thummler’s illustrations, from the ghosts who have personalities in spite of being covered with sheets to Marjorie and Mr. Saubertuck.

Delightful.

Hello, Universe

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by Erin Entrada Kelly
First sentence: “Eleven-year-old Virgil Salinas already regretted the rest of middle school, and he’d only just finished sixth grade.”
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Content: There’s some bullying. This will be in the Newbery section of the bookstore. Before that (if I had ordered it in; why didn’t I?) it would have been in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore.

Sometimes, fate works in ways that you have no control over.

Virgil is shy, quiet, and the object of bullying at school. He doesn’t really stand up for himself, and doesn’t know how to change that.

Valencia is deaf, but she doesn’t let that define her. Unfortunately, everyone else does. She doesn’t have any friends because of that.

And  Kaori, a budding psychic and fortune teller, is the one to bind everyone together.

This is a sweet story of making new friends, of figuring up how to stand up for yourself. About fate and connecting to one another. And about not being alone. It’s delightful and even if I completely missed it before it was awarded the Newbery, it’s perfectly deserving of that award.

Strawberry Girl

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by Lois Lenski
First sentence: “‘Thar goes our cow, Pa!’ said the little girl.”
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Content: It’s written in dialect, which might throw some readers off. It’s in the Newbery award section at the bookstore.

I remember reading this one when I was really young, maybe 2nd or third grade, when I was going through my pioneer stage. I was fascinated with old fashioned life, and the way settlers lived, and this one, though set in the early 1900s, fit that bill.

Birdie and her family have bought a house and land in mid-Florida, intending to start a strawberry farm and orange orchard. Their neighbors, the Slaters, who have lived on the land for several generations (though probably squatting, technically), have issues: they don’t like Birdie’s families uppity ways, their fences, their ambition. It’s only through long-suffering, hard work, and kindness that Birdie and her family make it through their first year,

Honestly, I think this one holds up pretty well. Lenski interviewed a lot of “Crackers”, original white settlers in Florida, and used their stories as a basis for this book, which gives it an understanding that would be missing if she hadn’t. I liked Birdie, her fire and her determination, and I was surprised at just how spiteful the Slaters were towards these outsiders. There’s also a strong class division running through the book — one I’m sure I didn’t pick up on as a kid — with Birdie’s family being able to afford nice things because they were disciplined. This plays into the “American dream” narrative — if you just work really hard, you’ll be rich — which I’m not sure is a good narrative to have around anymore. And the ending was surprisingly religious: you find God, you can be saved and change your evil ways. Even so, it was a sweet little book.

Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

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by Becky Albertalli
First sentence: “It’s a weirdly subtle conversation.”
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Content: There’s quite a bit of swearing, including a lot of f-bombs, and some teenage drinking. It’s in the Teen section (grades 9+) of the bookstore.

This one is a difficult one to sum up plot-wise. Simon is gay, but he’s not out. He’s being blackkmailed by another student who found out (accidentally) about Simon’s gayness, because Simon is emailing and flirting with a boy, Blue, online. Their relationship is entirely online, even though Simon knows that Blue is a student at his high school… Blue is just more comfortable with the anonymity.

As the book goes on, Simon juggles being blackmailed, and making and keeping friends, and high school drama, as he falls in love with Blue, and tries to figure everything out.

It’s not a deep or complex plot, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved Simon and his loveable awkwardness as he tries to figure everything out. (Being a high school junior is hard.) I loved his relationship with Blue, and once he figured it out, their in-person relationship. I liked Simon’s  family — it’s always nice to see a good, functional family in a YA novel — and his friends, and liked that there was conflict between them, but not of the sort that went against their fundamental relationship. It was sweet and wonderful and just happy-making. Which is what I would call this book. Maybe not perfect, but definitely very very wonderful.