This book made me laugh and cry. Mr. Buyea develops the characters from his previous book Because of Mr. Terupt beautifully. You admire each one all the more as events unfold and they mature in their outlook and how they handle life.
A wide variety of students and life situations: three female students with single moms, an only child who has wonderful parents, a boy who had brother with Downs Syndrome who eventually died . . .now the parents are buried in grief and do not interact with each other or with him, a boy who has workaholic parents and who want to send him to private school, and a Christian girl who lives on a multi-generational farm.
Wonderful life lessons are learned. How I wish I was a teacher like Mr. Terupt is portrayed!!
Love how Mr. Buyea has the class reading wonderful books. Hopefully the reader will want to go and read these titles:
(The Westing Game, The Whipping Boy, Are You There, God? It's Me Margaret. :-), Wringer)
I am cautious to recommend the book to sixth graders even though that is what grade the students are in, just because of the following-
*boys may feel a bit uncomfortable reading about two girls getting their period for the first time-pretty descriptive (Mr. Buyea describes "the event" very well and he is a guy!! Impressive! :-)),
* one student wants to have a bigger chest and stuffs herself with toilet paper a few times (again guy readers may not enjoy these parts . . . I found them hilarious!!!)
*one student begins hanging out with high school students and begins to smoke. The high school students also give her vodka to drink and bring pot to the scene. She does not try the pot. These scenes mostly occur in the beginning of the book and Mr. Terupt "rescues" her from the situation. The one high school student-a boy- is very disrespectful of teachers and gives Mr. Terupt the middle finger twice. By the end of the book Mr. Terupt has befriended the boy!
*Highly recommend.
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