Monday, February 29, 2016

Save Me a Seat by Weeks and Varadarajan - OPTIONAL

Weeks, Sarah and Gita Varadarajan Save Me a Seat, 240 pages.  Scholastic Press, MAY 2016.  Content: PG (bullying).

With the help of his 5th grade teacher, Joe ended the year on a high note and has high hopes for 6th grade.  Ravi has just moved to town from India, where he was the star student at his school; this first week of life in America is going to be a very rude awakening for the boy, starting with introducing himself to the class and no on e can understand his speech, which he thought was perfect English and his teacher thinks he might need ESL classes.  By the end of the week, the two boys will find out that they need each other in order to survive. 

As much as the cover conveys the differences between the two cultures, I wish it were more appealing.  I enjoyed Joe and Ravi’s story very much, but unless it is a classroom read, I am not sure that students will pick it up on their own.  The author does an excellent job of conveying Ravi’s immigrant experience, including a little lesson for the boy who used to be king of the hill.

EL – OPTIONAL.  Cindy, Library teacher

No comments: