The rich and complex emotional lives within a classroom of unsupervised students boil toward eruption the day an exceptional teacher is absent. When the designated substitute for Mr. Fabiano’s sixth-grade class calls in sick, her message is overlooked in the chaotic office, and the children find themselves without a teacher. Rather than report it, and led by Mr. Fab’s lesson plans, they run the class themselves. But powerful emotions are brewing under an otherwise ordinary day’s surface: Tommy, a classmate who was often teased for his slowness, has been dead for exactly six months and the class’s guilt over their treatment of him hasn’t been addressed; Rachel, who hasn’t spoken since Tommy died, is about to break her silence; and Bastian, often a bully, is making life- changing decisions on what has become his last day in school. Although Mr. Fabiano only appears at the end, his presence is felt on every page; Fletcher (Twilight Comes Twice, 1997, etc.) creates a testament to effective teaching in his realistic portrait of Mr. Fabiano as both caring and intelligent. A novel that is funny, real, and often moving. (Fiction. 10-12)
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1998
ISBN: 0-395-87323-1
Page Count: 138
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
The poster boy for relentless mischief-makers everywhere, first encountered in No, David! (1998), gives his weary mother a rest by going to school. Naturally, he’s tardy, and that’s but the first in a long string of offenses—“Sit down, David! Keep your hands to yourself! PAY ATTENTION!”—that culminates in an afterschool stint. Children will, of course, recognize every line of the text and every one of David’s moves, and although he doesn’t exhibit the larger- than-life quality that made him a tall-tale anti-hero in his first appearance, his round-headed, gap-toothed enthusiasm is still endearing. For all his disruptive behavior, he shows not a trace of malice, and it’ll be easy for readers to want to encourage his further exploits. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-590-48087-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato.
The new kid in school endures becoming the school mascot.
Ben Hardy has never cared for potatoes, and this distaste has become a barrier to adjusting to life in his new Idaho town. His school’s mascot is the Spud, and after a series of misfortunes, Ben is enlisted to don the potato costume and cheer on his school’s team. Ben balances his duties as a life-sized potato against his desperate desire to hide the fact that he’s the dork in the suit. After all, his cute new crush, Jayla, wouldn’t be too impressed to discover Ben’s secret. The ensuing novel is a fairly boilerplate middle–grade narrative: snarky tween protagonist, the crush that isn’t quite what she seems, and a pair of best friends that have more going on than our hero initially believes. The author keeps the novel moving quickly, pushing forward with witty asides and narrative momentum so fast that readers won’t really mind that the plot’s spine is one they’ve encountered many times before. Once finished, readers will feel little resonance and move on to the next book in their to-read piles, but in the moment the novel is pleasant enough. Ben, Jayla, and Ben’s friend Hunter are white while Ellie, Ben’s other good pal, is Latina.
On equal footing with a garden-variety potato. (Fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: March 24, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-11866-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
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