Wonder

     August (Auggie) Pullman has a facial birth defect.  He has been home schooled while going through multiple surgeries for his cleft palate.  Now that he is 10, he heads to school for the first time.  Auggie learns to deal with teasing, bullying, and kids who want to be his friend but give in to peer pressure and make fun of him.  

     His sister Via is also having a hard time starting high school.  Her friends have changed and she no longer knows where she fits in.  She loves her brother, but struggles with jealousy over the attention Auggie gets from their parents.  

     Luckily, they both have loving parents who adore them, friends who stand by them through thick and thin, and each other.  This year is guaranteed to change all of their lives.  

     I really enjoyed this book.  Although it dealt with a difficult subject, it did so in a compassionate and realistic way.  Auggie was a strong character.  He is funny, smart, charming, and kind, but also dealt with the real feelings of embarrassment, anger, and feeling sorry for himself.  Via loves her brother, but also deals with feelings of embarrassment, resentment, and guilt.

      This is a great book for 10 +.  It is a great jumping off point to think about peer pressure, how we treat others, and learning to feel comfortable in our own skin.  

Out of my Mind

     Melody is eleven-years-old and never been able to speak until now.  Her Cerebral Palsy has kept her  body in a wheel chair and her words locked inside her mind.  After years of feeling alienated and alone, she gets a special computer that speaks for her.  She hopes it will be enough to be normal like the other kids in her class, but she finds out that life isn't always fair.
     This book is not one of my favorites.  The author plays with the reader's emotions and forces reactions.  The characters are black and white and overly good or overly bad.  They are not shades of gray like real people.
     Many pages of the book are spent on lists of questions and multiple choice answers which gets monotonous.  Although the reading level is pretty easy, mature readers will like the book more than other readers because of the way the book is written and the emotional reactions to bullying.  Since there is not much action and lots of the book takes place in Melody's head, it is not a good choice for reluctant readers. 

Feathers

     Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson is an amazing book.  It is one of those books that teaches you about life, but doesn't knock you over the head with the lessons. 

     Frannie is in sixth grade when a new boy moves in.  Frannie knows what it is like to be the new kid, but it is even worse when you are the only white student in the school and happen to look like Jesus.  The other students immediately pick on him and start calling him Jesus Boy.  Frannie is fascinated and repelled by Jesus Boy.  When he signs to her, she thinks he is trying to embarrass her in front of the other kids.  They don't know Frannie has a brother who is deaf or that her mother has lost two babies and is pregnant again.  Since death has been a part of her family's life since before she was born, Frannie worries incessantly about her brother and her mother.  She searches for meaning in everything and everyone around her.  After reading an Emily Dickinson's poem "Hope" in school, she begins looking for ways hope is like feathers.

     The novel taught me about the importance of hope, to stop worrying about what life might bring and enjoy the moment I have, the pain of judgement and prejudice, and what it means to be a "good" person.  The author did a great job of incorporating the lessons into the story for Frannie to learn.  

     Feathers won a Newberry Honor.  It is a quick read at 118 pages, so it's perfect for a summer afternoon in a hammock or at the beach.  It is a lower reading level so kids can read it, but I don't think they would appreciate the subtleties of the characters or situations.  However, it is a great book for mature readers, adults, or as a classroom novel with the teacher explaining the themes and symbolism in the book. 

By the Time you Read this, I'll be Dead

     By the Time you Read this, I'll be Dead by Julie Anne Peters is a very heart-wrenching, but important book to read, especially if you love a child or care about bullying.  The book was well-written and is a realistic portrayal of bullying and suicide.  
     Daelyn has been bullied her entire life.  Her parents try to help with advice like, "Sticks and stones...."  They feel helpless and struggle to help her, but it alienates Daelyn. 
     After being assaulted in the boy's bathroom, she becomes suicidal.  She has tried several times to kill herself, but always "fails."  This time will be different.  Daelyn finds a website called Through-the-Light.  It promises to help you kill yourself, but you must agree to wait for a minimum of 23 days.  Daelyn anxiously counts down days to her death.  In those 23 days we see how daily bullying can lead to a self-hatred so deep, death seems the only way out.  Daelyn cannot stop the bullies, but she can stop the hurt.  It is her way of taking back her own power. 
    I loved Santana.  He seemed very real and I liked him instantly.  Santana was totally different than the other kids in the book, which was interesting because he was also the only kid to be home schooled in the book.  By putting all of the kids together and ignoring their behavior, do they revert to savagery?  Do we as teachers and administrators subconciously (or otherwise) allow bullying to go on because it prepares them for real life?  Do we think they become harder and ready to deal with the cruel world of business?  Hmmmm...
     Although I liked Santana's mom, I felt she was an undeveloped character that just served as a foil for Daelyn's relationship to her parents.  I would have liked to see her develop more on her own merits. 
    The thing I didn't like was the ending.  I have been Daelyn in different times in my life and the ending was not believable.   Daelyn could make the decision she made in time, but it is unrealistic to come to that decision in the last two pages of the book.  I think the author should have spent more time leading her to that decision or have cut out the last chapter and left us to wonder what she would choose.
     This book is more appropriate for high school students because of the graphic details of the assault and the pros and cons of various methods of suicide.  It is a good book for teens dealing with suicide or bullying.  It is also a good book for the adults in their lives that have forgotten how horrible bullying is when you are in school.  Daelyn's parents have forgotten what it is like, so they are unable to help their daughter effectively.