"Travis stood in front of locker number 78."The summary is hidden because it may contain spoilers. If you would like to read the full summary, simply use your cursor to highlight the next few lines and it will magically appear.
Everything changes for thirteen-year-old Travis, a new student who is trying to hide his illiteracy, when he meets a sassy classmate with her own secrets and a remarkable teacher.
Candlewick Press; 226 pages
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3 comments:
I found it frustrating that in a book filled with three-dimensional, fully developed characters, one didn't ring true - and she was one of the two main players in the story. I understand what Schmatz was trying to do with Velveeta, but her voice was never truly believable to me. As such, I wasn't to enjoy this otherwise well-written book nearly as much as I otherwise would have.
I didn't feel the same about Velveeta. I felt like she was believable. I felt the book was good, and had well developed characters. The setting is developed as we travel between school, the library, their homes, and the swamp. Overall a good book, but it did not scream "Newbery" to me.
I will be reading this book with my class as a starting place for talking about tolerance. Students come to class with all levels of abilities and as long as they keep working they can learn!
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