DEAD WEDNESDAY by Jerry Spinelli

primarily marketed for: middle grades

I have been a fan of Jerry Spinelli's work for a long time, and Dead Wednesday did not disappoint. The narrative style in this one struck as me being similar to Loser, but not just because of the third-person point of view. The protagonist of Dead Wednesday, Worm Tarnauer, will tug at your heartstrings the same Zinkoff did in Loser.

Dead Wednesday is a tradition the whole town gets behind in an attempt to help 8th graders avoid potentially fatal decisions as they head into their high school years. Each 8th grader is assigned the name of a local teen who passed away due to avoidable reasons (mostly accidents involving risky behavior). Students were black t-shirts and are ignored by others for the day to encourage quiet reflection. However, for most 8th graders being ignored by adults is more of an invitation to act out than to turn inward.

Worm approaches the day expecting to celebrate his freedom in the comfort of his best friend's shadow. That is until Becca Finch, the dead teen whose name he was assigned, takes over his day, determined to show him how not to miss truly living another minute of his life. During their day together, Worm begins to realize how much the world has to offer, and maybe, just maybe, how much he has to offer the world.

This will be a definite addition to my classroom library. Thanks to Random House Children's Publisher and NetGalley for a free, temporary digital review copy of the book.

Comments

ONE FOR THE MURPHYS by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

copyright date: May 2012 primarily marketed for: intermediate readers (5 th grade and up) I sort of expected One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt to be one of those overly sappy books with unrealistic, sickeningly sweet characters. However, although the storyline might make it sound sappy, the characters are realistic and dynamic. After a traumatic incident that lands both she and her mother in the hospital, Carley Connors is taken away and placed in foster care with the Murphy family. The only life Carley has known is one of put-downs, food scraps, and shopping for clothes in Salvation Army drop boxes. Until she meets the Murphys. The Murphys are too good to be true: Julia, the mom, happily makes home-cooked meals for her three boys and firefighting, sports-loving husband. In fact, Julia isn’t even rattled by Carley’s rough around the edges attitude. At first, Carley despises the Murphys and the way they make he...

THE LITTLE PRINCE by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

copyright date: 1943 primarily marketed for: everyone The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint- Exupéry was a reread for me. I read this book for the first time when I was in high school. All I remembered about it was that I expected it to be too complex for me to understand, and I was surprised when at its charming simplicity. I always remember feeling like I had a special place in my heart for The Little Prince , but I didn’t remember exactly why. It was written so long ago and is translated from French that it is no wonder I first expected to find its meaning elusive. However, I am sure that if you pick up this book, it will nestle itself into a special place in your heart as well. Simply, The Little Prince is the story of a clever man who has never lost the child inside of himself and finds himself stranded in the desert after a plan crash. In the desert, he happens upon the little prince who is traveling to earth from his d...

ALL THESE THINGS I’VE DONE by Gabrielle Zevin

copyright date: September 2011 primarily marketed for: young adults (8 th grade and up) I wish I would’ve known this was the beginning of a series before I started this book. Then again, I might never have picked it up if I thought I might be committing to multiple books… At any rate, this is not a story I will be sad to return to this fall when the sequel is released. Anya’s story takes place in New York City, in the future. Around the time you will be old enough to be grandparents. This is a sort of post-apocalyptic, dystopian kind of book in a mild way. Basically, the United States has self-destructed, and yet life seems to go surprisingly similar to the way we live nowadays. Except that water and paper are costly and hard to come by. Chocolate is prohibited. Caffeine is an illegal drug. Which is all to say that the setting alone is intriguing. Add to that setting, the fact that Anya is the oldest daughter of the ...

Ms Rush Reads

Search This Blog