Summary
As their sixth grade year begins, these five kids have a lot going on:
- Gavin loves football but isn’t so hot on school. His dad dropped out to take over the family business, so Gavin thinks that is his destiny, too, unless football gives him another choice.
- Randi’s whole life is about gymnastics. And early on she enjoyed that. But now she’s practicing 6 days a week, including three hours on school nights. But she’s somehow supposed to keep her grades up, too. And her mom wants her to ace the CSAs (state standardized tests) so she can be placed in the highest levels in 7th grade.
- Natalie is the teacher’s pet of the class. She’s never really had friends before but things may be starting to change this year. Once she has friends, what is Natalie willing to do for them?
- Scott is crazy smart but also something of a naive goof ball. He doesn’t realize some of the guys in his class aren’t teasing him because they like him. They are mocking him.
- Trevor doesn’t care about much more than cutting up with his friends at school and steering clear of his older brother and his crew at home. Those guys have always told Trevor he was a mistake. And Trevor has started to believe them.
In the middle of these individual stories, there’s the larger story of a class of 6th graders, their teachers/administrators, and the state standardized tests. As the kids lose more and more of what has made the year special to make space for test prep, they become more and more desperate to ace the test and put it behind them. Whatever it takes.
Review
Wow, this was FANTASTIC! I loved all the kids – well, the punkish one won me over in the end. Their concerns and actions felt genuine. I cared about them from the first page. The adults were fantastic, too – not perfect by any means. But they felt real, and they were trying to do the right things (even when they failed to).
I loved the author’s previous series about another teacher, Mr. Terupt, and his students. But because it’s so special, I worried that this wouldn’t live up to it. My worry was unnecessary. This was a delight to read from start to finish. Buyea does an awesome job with this format of a handful of kids telling the story. Each has a distinct voice and style. It’s great. There’s so much more nuance to the story than just the test at the center of the plot. Every part of it worked for me. I was thrilled to hear that he’s already been working on a sequel.
Many thanks to Delacorte books and Netgalley for an electronic review copy in exchange for an honest review.