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| from: robbuyea.com |
Mrs. Woods invests the time to create a caring community in an inclusive classroom. Her lessons are engaging, and even if she has to deliver a consequence to a student, Mrs. Woods ensures it addresses the behaviour, as opposed to being merely punitive. Slowly, mostly due to Mrs. Woods' classroom, the five students -- Gavin, Scott, Trevor, Randi, and Natalie -- become friends. But in time, the school board and principal require that Mrs. Woods do test prep for the upcoming state exam. Boring worksheets that neither challenge, nor enrich the students. Eventually, they even lose recess. Scott manages to get the principal to agree that if they do well on the state exam, Mrs. Woods can do her usual lessons and they can have recess again. So Scott, who struggles with impulsivity and hyperactivity, and lives and breathes for recess, wants to help his friends just as much as himself.
Gavin is a talented artist who struggles to read, but if he fails the state exam he won't be able to play football next year.
Trevor hates school and has an abusive home life. His only hope is playing football next year, so he can stay out of the house as much as possible.
Randi is top gymnast in her area and has done well in school, but intense pressure to win from "Coach Jane" (a.k.a. Mom) are starting to make her self-confidence crumble.
And Natalie? Natalie doesn't have much to lose. She finds the tests so easy she can do it blindfolded. But is she willing to risk her sense of ethics and propriety to help out her friends?
It's heartbreaking to watch Mrs. Woods' engaging lessons deteriorate into mandated test prep that bores the entire class and turns some students completely off school. Gavin, Trevor, and Randi are starting to panic, because so much of their future hinges on passing a single test. Scott has an idea: He comes up with a system to signal the correct answers on the test to the rest of the class without tipping off the monitors. It's going to be flawless! That is, until Scott's grandfather's house burns down the night before the test, which causes Scott to be absent on test day. It seems as if all is lost, until Natalie takes a deep breath, and initiates Scott's plan.
It works. Everyone passes, but not without a cost. The students, Mrs. Woods, and the school will be investigated, leading to some hard truths about what adults expect from children and what the purpose of education is. Is it to create really good bubble sheet fillers or to create critical thinkers?
The mix of characters in the novel are intriguing. Buyea writes Mrs. Woods' class as an inclusive classroom, without stating the students' disabilities. A reader can deduce that Scott probably has ADHD. Gavin has a reading disability, maybe dyslexia, but as he tells Mrs. Woods, the psycho-educational testing said he, "wasn't dumb enough" to receive help in school. Trevor barely tolerates school, but only because it's better than being at home with his physically and mentally abusive older brother. Randi can handle the school work, but the pressure from her mother to succeed in school and in the gym is starting to slowly erode her confidence so that she makes epic mistakes in gymnastic routines she's been able to do for months and can't focus in school. Natalie is a miniature adult, who comes to the rescue of her friends in more ways than one, and figures out the best way for the powers-that-be to hear the students.
I found Buyea's choice to not label the students to be a good decision, which allows the reader to get to know the characters as people with valid concerns that a single test isn't going to measure their progress as students. Another intriguing choice by Buyea was to write from the point-of-view of each student, letting us see and feel their insecurities and fears. We're also privy to their victories, however small, because to someone like Gavin, reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar to his baby sister is huge. I also thought Buyea made a good choice to show how external pressures in cases of Trevor and Randi affect their performance in school. They don't have learning disabilities, per se, but their stresses affect their ability to learn. I also liked that the five core characters weren't initially friends, except for Randi and Gavin. They could be outright hostile to one another. They only learn to respect one another when they participate in an after-school program. The sometimes grudging respect eventually turns to friendship.
Some reviewers felt that Buyea wrapped everything up too neatly, but as a teacher, I felt it was only the end of that particular year in their lives. What will happen to kids like Scott and Gavin when they go to high school? Will they have teachers who will be able to take the time to help them with their learning disabilities? What happens if Randi suffers a catastrophic injury and cannot compete in gymnastics? What if the friendships Scott has made this year don't survive high school? Also, the school itself is under extra scrutiny due to the testing "scandal." What happens next school year? Will they double down on test prep? So while I do agree that Buyea did wrap up this story line with a nice bow, I don't think it lessens the impact of the story. In the end, it ably demonstrates that children are more than their disability (or ability), and have something meaningful to contribute to their classmates.
I would recommend this book to any middle grade student and their teachers.
Other middle grade books that feature characters with disabilities and/or mental illness include: Rules by Cynthia Lord, Mockingbird: (mok'ing-burd) by Katheryn Erskine, the Joey Pigza series by Jack Gantos, The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, From Anna by Jean Little, The Storm Runner by Jennifer Cervantes, Rick Riordian's Percy Jackson series, and A Mango-Shaped Space by Wendy Maas. Some notable YA titles are: Saving Red by Sonya Sones, Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman, Marcelo in the Real World by Francisco X. Stork.
A resource to find other books that feature characters with a disability is the Schneider Family Book Award.
