MIDDLE GRADE REALISTIC FICTION: The Next Great Paulie Fink by Ali Benjamin & The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf
ABOUT THE BOOK
When Caitlyn Breen enters the tiny Mitchell School in rural Mitchell, Vermont, she is a complete outsider: the seventh grade has just ten other kids, and they've known each other since kindergarten. Her classmates are in for a shock of their own: Paulie Fink--the class clown, oddball, troublemaker, and evil genius--is gone this year.
As stories of Paulie's hijinks unfold, his legend builds, until they realize there's only one way to fill the Paulie-sized hole in their class. They'll find their next great Paulie Fink through a reality-show style competition, to be judged by the only objective person around: Caitlyn, who never even met Paulie Fink. Who was this kid, anyway--prankster, performance artist, philosopher, or fool? Caitlyn's quest to understand Paulie is about to teach her more about herself than she ever imagined.
Told via multiple voices, interviews, and other documents, The Next Great Paulie Fink is a lighthearted yet surprisingly touching exploration of how we build up and tear down our own myths... about others, our communities, and ourselves.
REVIEW
After hearing so much about this book I decided I finally needed to read it. And while I didn't love it, I did find it enjoyable. My favorite parts involved reading about the rather unusual school that main character Caitlyn Breen finds herself attending as the story opens. Having moved with her mother to a very small town in Maine, Caitlyn is very unhappy to find herself attending a new school. She's especially baffled when she discovers that her new classmates seem obsessed with a student that no longer attends the school, Paulie Fink. As her classmates fill her in on Paulie's pranks, Caitlyn struggles to make sense of her new environment and her place in it. With goats, impossible-to-win soccer games, and a threatened school closure all playing a role, Caitlyn and her classmates set out to find a new Paulie Fink through their own made-up version of a reality TV show. With Caitlyn as the judge, the other students compete to prove they can be just as unique as Paulie Fink. Caitlyn meanwhile has to come to terms with having her internal rules turned on their head.
To be honest, I didn't like Caitlyn a whole lot when the story began. Her priorities are clear : being popular is more important than being kind. I did feel sorry for her as the story went on though and she tried to make sense of her new school and classmates who didn't fit into her ideas of what school and friendship should be. It was nice to see her start to change as she got to know her classmates and teachers. The ideas and stories from Ancient Greece that Caitlyn's new teacher uses make for an interesting side note in Caitlyn's shifting thinking. A book that I found different and unique, but not one that I fell in love with.
ABOUT THE BOOK
There used to be an empty chair at the back of my class, but now a new boy called Ahmet is sitting in it.
He's eight years old (just like me), but he's very strange. He never talks and never smiles and doesn't like sweets - not even lemon sherbets, which are my favourite!
But the truth is, Ahmet really isn't very strange at all. He's a refugee who's run away from a War. A real one. With bombs and fires and bullies that hurt people. And the more I find out about him, the more I want to be his friend.
That's where my best friends Josie, Michael and Tom come in. Because you see, together we've come up with a plan.
REVIEW
I was interested in this book from the moment I heard about it. With refugees and immigrants being such an important topic currently I was interested to see what this book had to say. I was a bit surprised when I discovered that it takes place in Great Britain because that isn't indicated in the description at all, but in terms of understanding the story it wasn't a big problem. There were cultural differences of course, but nothing major. I did find it interesting that the main character who narrates the story isn't identified by gender or name until the end of the book. This made the perspective of the character unique, but the fact is the character's behavior could be that of either a boy or a girl so the gender isn't as important as one might think. I just found it a bit unusual to tell the story that way.
I really enjoyed the story of the four friends who work so hard to befriend Ahmet despite the challenges of befriending a refugee who doesn't speak the language (neither of which the friends know at first). I found this so refreshing when so many books focus on bullying. While there is bullying that occurs in the book (which made me really mad), Ahmet has friends and adults to help him from the get-go. The naivety that the kids exhibit felt real for 9-year-olds who don't have experience with the larger political world. And the efforts the kids make to help Ahmet are sincere if a bit misguided. This is one of those books that left me feeling good because the characters extended compassion and friendship to one who needed it so badly. This was very refreshing to read at a time when hate and anger and prejudice is so prevalent in the world today.
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