Written by John David Anderson
From John David Anderson, author of the acclaimed Ms. Bixby’s Last Day, comes a humorous, poignant, and original contemporary story about bullying, broken friendships, and the failures of communication between kids.
In middle school, words aren’t just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever.
When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes—though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well.
In the middle of this, a new girl named Rose arrives at school and sits at Frost’s lunch table. Rose is not like anyone else at Branton Middle School, and it’s clear that the close circle of friends Frost has made for himself won’t easily hold another. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.
This is a great book for middle grade students. Kids need to understand the power of words and the impact it can have on others. I liked the message that was taught in this book. I felt like it was a true depiction of friendship and bullying. Students will relate to this book and hopefully learn from it.
Review by Vanessa Eyre, Robert Frost Elementary Media Center
Rating: ★★★★½ (4.5 stars)
Interest Level: Grades 3-7
Posted
Written by John David Anderson
Walden Pond Press, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
369 pages
Release Date: May 2, 2017
A review copy was provided by the publisher.
I loved Anderson’s book from last year, Ms. Bixby’s Last Day. This sounds like a great book to explore and talk about digital citizenship as well as good old “analog” citizenship.