In New York City, four seventh graders wrestle with adolescent drama. Bridge is determined to keep her circle of friends together and strives to understand how she feels about Sherm,who dealing with the divorce of his grandparents and departure of his grandfather, while also trying to combat the jerks in his school who are tormenting one of Bridge's friends, Emily. Emily getss caught up in a sexting scandal that stresses out their other friend, Tab, who just wants to be real and fair and fight for what's right. Tab's sister Celeste is struggling with own friendships. The storylines converge at the end and everything appears to turn out fine for all the characters.
I think this book would be exceptionally important for middle schoolers to read. The issues that the characters in this book face are particularly relatable to this student population. Stead's use of multiple characters allowed for her to cover a multitude of issues facing young adolescents. The issues these characters face also address a few of Havighurst's developmental tasks. Each character experiences some changes with their relationships with their parents, Emily in particular finds out that reaching out to her mom to deal with the sexting scandal was particularly helpful. Tab is the poster child for developing morals and values. Through her teacher, Tab develops a genuine concern for human rights. Bridge and Sherm's relationship is a great example of an easy relationship between opposite sexes but by the book's end they are advancing more than just friends status.
No comments:
Post a Comment