This is a middle grade book I read for my YA book club. It tells the story of the first week of fifth grade for two students in alternating POVs, with each author writing one character's POV. Ravi and his family have just moved to New Jersey from India, and the culture shock is pretty rough. Joe isn't particularly popular due in part to his sensory sensitivity, and the fact that his mom has just been hired as a lunch monitor at his school doesn't help him feel like he can fit in.
I found parts of this book really difficult to read, because Ravi in particular tries so hard to be liked and through no fault of his own gets everything wrong and doesn't understand why Dillon, the big bad bully, is being mean to him. Joe understands perfectly well why Dillon is being mean, but feels powerless to do anything about it for the first half of the book. I don't usually get second-hand embarrassment that easily, but when it comes to kids I find it all but unbearable. Luckily none of the individual moments of embarrassment last too long, and the knowledge that by the end Joe and Ravi will be bound together in friendship helped me make it through.
I also really liked that the back of the book had a glossary for both Ravi and for Joe; the book doesn't assume that all of the readers would know all of the terms in Joe's chapters but not in Ravi's, or that the main audience for this book is white American kids.
Grade: B
I found parts of this book really difficult to read, because Ravi in particular tries so hard to be liked and through no fault of his own gets everything wrong and doesn't understand why Dillon, the big bad bully, is being mean to him. Joe understands perfectly well why Dillon is being mean, but feels powerless to do anything about it for the first half of the book. I don't usually get second-hand embarrassment that easily, but when it comes to kids I find it all but unbearable. Luckily none of the individual moments of embarrassment last too long, and the knowledge that by the end Joe and Ravi will be bound together in friendship helped me make it through.
I also really liked that the back of the book had a glossary for both Ravi and for Joe; the book doesn't assume that all of the readers would know all of the terms in Joe's chapters but not in Ravi's, or that the main audience for this book is white American kids.
Grade: B
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