Sentenced to a year in juvenile detention, Miguel is ordered by the judge to keep a journal. At a group home, he meets unpredictably dangerous Mong and his mentally-challenged roommate Rondell, who possesses a surprising talent. When Mong decides to escape, Miguel plots and steals $750 from the home's petty-cash box. Rondell also decides to leave the home along with them.Their misadventures take them along the California coast to unexpected destinations, events, and revelations of self-discovery. Secrets are kept and revealed; funny, shocking, and tragic, in a book which will appeal to many teens. A 2010 ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults, a 2010 ALA-YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers.
This was started by a class as part of a Grant for Innovative Teaching project; replaced by the participating teacher because of the language the characters use. However, much of the class looked captivated, and it was requested many times by class members for check out.
This sounds like a perfect story line for my group as well. What is the reading level like? Could middle school students get in to this one??
ReplyDeleteToo bad the teacher didn't stick it out with the book. The book sounds like a winner and possibly the only "shocked" by the language was the teacher.
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds interesting for students on the high school level. I wouldn't recommend it to staff at my school because of the content but the high school level this would be appropriate.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book and very interesting.
ReplyDeleteHI! This book sounds great! I love YA books; they're really great for our young readers who seem to think that they "can't connect" with older novels. I am glad to see that although the book was removed by the teacher, the student's were still interested in reading it.
ReplyDeleteSarah
The reading level is 5th-6th grade (Lexile 680-770), easy to read, and funny. I downloaded it from Kobo to my phone, since I don't believe any DISD library had it at the time, it wasn't available at a bookstore in the area, and could only find one copy at a nearby public library. Here's a MS summer reading list it was on: http://belzer.ltschools.org/files/belzer/file/Suggested%20Reading%20List.pdf
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