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Asher,
Diana Harmon. (2
booktalks) |
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Booktalk #1 Sometimes we become sidetracked. For 7th grader Joseph this happens all too often as he copes with his ADD diagnosis. He struggles to understand school and the concept of sports. His phobias are many, especially when it comes to sports. Imagine being in the
middle of the soccer field. Your mind drifts, as you
watch a grey squirrel clutch a fat brown maple seed. It
turns the seed slowly, about to take a bite- suddenly
freezing- eyeing something behind you. Joseph is
brought back to reality when the ground beneath him
trembles as if an earthquake is about to hit. He turns
to see a herd of feet charging toward him. There is
nowhere to go. He braces for impact as Charlie, the
class bully, leads the charge right at him. The impact
doesn’t happen. Charlie is flying through the air,
tumbling before the thud of his body smashes onto the
ground like a firecracker exploding. Someone took
Charlie out and stole the ball! Charlie was
hipchecked…by a girl! Heather, the new girl in school,
becomes Joseph’s salvation. A kinship develops when
Joseph finds himself on the new track team with Heather.
With a team of misfits, Joseph learns to handle the
school bully and learns that life is not about how fast
you run, but that you run. (New
Hampshire Great Stone Face nominee, 2018-2019) Booktalk #2 Joseph feels like he will
never fit in. But all he really needs is a group of
friends who accept him for who he is, ADD and all. So
when he joins his school’s new track team, will he find
just that, or will he find even more reasons for Charlie
to tease him? When he meets Heather, the new athletic
girl, will she join Charlie’s side, or finally be the
person who sticks up for Joseph? With the help of their
new coach, will Joseph, and his whole new track team,
learn to stick up for themselves, and learn the valuable
lesson that you don’t always have to win, just always do
your best, or will they succumb to the teasing and give
up? ( Prepared by: Samantha Finkenberg, Cario Middle
School, finsam5260@ccsdschools.com for South
Carolina Book Award) |
SUBJECTS: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder --
Fiction. Bullying -- Fiction. Friendship -- Fiction. Jews -- United States -- Fiction. Learning disabilities -- Fiction. Middle schools -- Fiction. Running -- Fiction. Schools -- Fiction. Sports fiction. |