Booktalks Quick and Simple

	Korman, Gordon. RESTART New York : Scholastic, 2017 IL 3-6, RL 5.5 ISBN 1338053779 (4 booktalks)
Click on the book to read Amazon reviews	Booktalk #1 Chase Ambrose is lucky to be alive. He doesn't remember falling off the roof but he did a job on his head. And now he doesn't really remember anything about his life before he woke up in the hospital. It is called amnesia and is probably caused by his brain injury. The doctor says he is lucky that he remembers how to do most things -- just not his first 13 years. He doesn't know his parents or even his own face. When school starts, he is allowed to go to school but no football. What? Even though he doesn't remember, he is apparently the best player on the team. But it is the reactions of the other kids that disturbs him the most. Everywhere he goes, kids run away in fear. He is able to make friends with a student on the video club and soon they begin to accept that Chase has changed. But can you really change when you have been the biggest bully in town? Booktalk #2 Chase doesn't remember falling off the roof and hitting his head. He doesn't remember his family, his friends, or even his own name. When Chase wakes up with amnesia after a concussion, he learns that not only was he Hiawassee Middle School’s football star, he was also its worst bully. This hilarious story is about school life, family, sports, friendship, and the choices we make about who we are and who we want to become. It also features a diverse and entertaining cast of characters. (Vermont DCF Award nominee, 2018-2019) Booktalk #3 Not many people get to change who they are, to make a fresh start. Eighth grader Chase Ambrose awakens from a serious fall with amnesia. It’s so weird that everyone knows him but he does not remember anyone, including his own mother. And, boy, do people remember what he has done and not in a good way! Chase rediscovers who he is and realizes that NOW he has become a very different person. He can’t believe what he and his so called friends did. He was a jerk and a bully! Can this change last or will he be tempted to revert to his old ways? Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2018-2019 Booktalk #4 Chase wakes up surrounded by total strangers, including his own mother and brother, after falling off the roof of his house. He doesn’t remember anything – not the fact that he is the star football player or that he is a notorious bully. Slowly Chase learns what he has done and who he has hurt, a journey of revelation that leaves him wondering who he is now – the boy who was so bad that he was sentenced to community service or the boy whose new friends are the “nerds” in the video club and the old veteran in the senior center. Can these new friends truly trust the new Chase Ambrose, and can Chase trust himself? (Prepared by: BT Bouton, Camp Road Middle School, betty_bouton@charleston.k12.sc.us for South Carolina Book Award)
	SUBJECTS: Amnesia -- Fiction. Bullies -- Fiction. Interpersonal relations -- Fiction. Memory -- Fiction. Middle schools -- Fiction. Self-perception -- Fiction.

Korman, Gordon.
RESTART
New York : Scholastic, 2017
IL 3-6, RL 5.5
ISBN 1338053779

(4 booktalks)

Click on the book to read Amazon reviews

Booktalk #1

Chase Ambrose is lucky to be alive. He doesn't remember falling off the roof but he did a job on his head. And now he doesn't really remember anything about his life before he woke up in the hospital. It is called amnesia and is probably caused by his brain injury. The doctor says he is lucky that he remembers how to do most things -- just not his first 13 years. He doesn't know his parents or even his own face. When school starts, he is allowed to go to school but no football. What? Even though he doesn't remember, he is apparently the best player on the team. But it is the reactions of the other kids that disturbs him the most. Everywhere he goes, kids run away in fear. He is able to make friends with a student on the video club and soon they begin to accept that Chase has changed. But can you really change when you have been the biggest bully in town?

Booktalk #2

Chase doesn't remember falling off the roof and hitting his head. He doesn't remember his family, his friends, or even his own name. When Chase wakes up with amnesia after a concussion, he learns that not only was he Hiawassee Middle School’s football star, he was also its worst bully. This hilarious story is about school life, family, sports, friendship, and the choices we make about who we are and who we want to become. It also features a diverse and entertaining cast of characters. (Vermont DCF Award nominee, 2018-2019)

Booktalk #3

Not many people get to change who they are, to make a fresh start. Eighth grader Chase Ambrose awakens from a serious fall with amnesia. It’s so weird that everyone knows him but he does not remember anyone, including his own mother. And, boy, do people remember what he has done and not in a good way! Chase rediscovers who he is and realizes that NOW he has become a very different person. He can’t believe what he and his so called friends did. He was a jerk and a bully! Can this change last or will he be tempted to revert to his old ways? Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Award 2018-2019

Booktalk #4

Chase wakes up surrounded by total strangers, including his own mother and brother, after falling off the roof of his house. He doesn’t remember anything – not the fact that he is the star football player or that he is a notorious bully. Slowly Chase learns what he has done and who he has hurt, a journey of revelation that leaves him wondering who he is now – the boy who was so bad that he was sentenced to community service or the boy whose new friends are the “nerds” in the video club and the old veteran in the senior center. Can these new friends truly trust the new Chase Ambrose, and can Chase trust himself? (Prepared by: BT Bouton, Camp Road Middle School, betty_bouton@charleston.k12.sc.us for South Carolina Book Award)

SUBJECTS:     Amnesia -- Fiction.
                        Bullies -- Fiction.
                        Interpersonal relations -- Fiction.
                        Memory -- Fiction.
                        Middle schools -- Fiction.
                        Self-perception -- Fiction.