Saturday 14 May 2011

Schooled by Gordon Korman

I have had this book on my TBR pile for a while. Lately I have been trying to fit in more time for reading. It is good for my soul...although not so good for my housework routines. Oh well!!

This book is about a boy who lives with his Grandmother named Rain on a kind of hippie commune. Rain falls out of a tree while picking fruit and breaks her hip. While she is in the hospital recovering the boy, Capricorn, gets take by social services to live with a family while Rain recuperates. He experiences many firsts: school, money, friends, TV, and more.

The book is pretty heart warming. It would be a great book to read with teens or pre-teens to talk about bullying, conforming, sticking to your values, and things like that. This book is a lot like Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli but would work better for boys. Star girl is a little too flowery. Capricorn is just plain innocent and inexperienced. The main character is really likable and the things the kids go through in the story, while a little exaggerated, would make for a great discussion with kids on what really matters to them and how they treat people around them. It is a unique writing style too. Every chapter is written from the perspective of another person. Some do repeat, but there are never two chapters in a row from the perspective of the same person.

The ending was a little too corny and simple....but I could live with it. The way they solve the problem though just seemed like they were giving into the things they professed to want to avoid at all costs. Oh well!! So much for idealism.

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