Thursday, September 14, 2017

Restart by Gordon Korman

Chase has a head injury and has lost his memory. He doesn't know anything about himself, but when he returns to school he discovers that some kids are downright scared of him. It turns out he was a football player as well as a jerk and a bully. But now he feels more comfortable in the video club and volunteering at a nursing home. But can a person make a totally clean start? Restart is classic Gordon Korman--he takes a fun premise, and gives readers a lot to laugh about and think about. This book will fly off the shelves of a middle school library.

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Refugee is a timely and moving book that will be perfect for middle school book clubs, language arts and social studies classes, and kids looking for an action-packed read. It traces the stories of three children living in different time periods who become refugees for a variety of reasons. Josef is a Jewish boy from Germany whose family is on a ship seeking refuge in Cuba; Mahmoud is a modern-day Syrian boy from Aleppo whose family must leave on foot when their home is bombed; and Isabel is a Cuban girl whose father is wanted by Fidel Castro's government in the early 1990s. The story alternates between each child and their increasingly harrowing journeys toward a better life, all of which involve travel over water at some point. Allan Gratz's books are already popular in my library, and this one is flying off the shelves. Recommended for grades 6-adult and definitely for teachers interested in human rights education.