With multiple starred reviews, don’t miss this humorous, poignant, and original contemporary story about bullying, broken friendships, social media, and the failures of communication between kids. From John David Anderson, author of the acclaimed Ms. Bixby’s Last Day.In middle school, words aren’t just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you … gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever.
When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes—though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well.
In the middle of this, a new girl named Rose arrives at school and sits at Frost’s lunch table. Rose is not like anyone else at Branton Middle School, and it’s clear that the close circle of friends Frost has made for himself won’t easily hold another. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.
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There are books that lodge in your heart and maybe even in your gut because they hit you there, their message strong, profound, and somewhat painful. A message that isn’t always talked about but needs to be brought out in the open and shared. It’s about the social hierarchies of adolescence and how people treat one another. About words and their destructive power. It’s about the seductive power of bullying and how easy it is fall into its trap. It’s about finding courage not to always play it safe. It’s about friendships that are built and lost.
That’s this book, and every middle school kid and up, every parent, needs to read it. It’s why I’m buying extra copies to pass around to the YA readers in my life.
I loved Eric – aka “Frost,” nicknamed after his favorite poet. He’s an 8th grader who keeps his head down, playing things safe, well aware of the hierarchy of his school. Luckily, he has his “tribe,” a group with three other guys who he has been friends with for the two years of middle school. It took him awhile “to find his people,” but he is satisfied and knows that middle school goes a little easier when you have friends. I loved his understanding of words and their effects. His voice was profound and resonated throughout this book.
Eric is a closet poet, a people watcher that has a keen eye for things going on around him. “Bench” is his best friend, a guy who loves to play sports but mostly sits on the bench, being supportive of his teammates. DeeDee is a kid that loves D&D, building his weekends around those adventures. And lastly, there is Wolf – aka Morgan – a music prodigy, a genius, on the piano, who wins competition after competition. They are all different, but it works for them. Each one brings something different to their group.
This tightly knit group starts to falter when Rose Holland enrolls in their school. Rose is unlike the other girls. Tall, big, broad, wearing combat boots and slightly tattered clothes, Frost watches while she tries to negotiate the quicksand of being the new kid, being shunned and talked about behind her back. A quick smile from him earlier in the day, and Rose appears at their lunch table, an act that makes Frost and some of his friends panic, knowing who you hang out with affects your social capital. But Rose in her affable, authentic way, worms her way into hanging out with them, not to everyone’s pleasure.
That’s only a little of things happening in this book. Overlapping that is a school full of kids, deprived of their favorite way of communicating – texting – and coming up with an alternative means of communication – using post-it notes. It’s about the ugliness of communication and how words can be said in an unfiltered moment, how they can be used as weapons. As Eric says, The notes had brought out the worst in us. And some of us weren’t all that great to begin with. It’s about how far those not-all-that-great people will take things and who will stand up for what is right, even when it’s hard. It’s about friends and all their strengths and weaknesses.
The life lessons and themes abound in this book, and seeing things through Eric’s poet heart brings out the pain and triumphs of having to deal with them. I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s definitely going down on my all-time favorites shelf.
I thought it would be a story about standing up for others, and it didn’t as much as I thought it would. Overall, it was pretty good. I actually rate it 2.5
Great book! I think everyone should read this book!
I had read the book about Mrs. Bixby, so I wanted to check this one out. It was good… and then I wished it hadn’t turned out how it did. But I guess we all try to justify and run from our sins. Or…it was all just talk and stunk (stunk being a huge, gigantic understatement) to be talked about like that. I donno. I could be way wrong, but yeah, disappointed. This is my review, so I guess I get to state my opinion. I do get the point though, so that’s good! It was good writing and plotting, et cetera. Not gonna recommend this one to my kids or friends though is all. In fact, going to warn a few that I know will appreciate the warning.
Middle school students will enjoy this book. They will be able to relate to the characters, and the issues faced in the book.
Posted by John David Anderson was my favorite read of the week. The beginning explains that Eric (known by his friends as Frost) moved to Branton not long ago and his mom encourages him by explaining that we all find our closest friends, when we start over. We gravitate towards those we need:
Mom put a hand on my shoulder and leaned close so that nobody around us could hear. “It’s hard starting over. Trust me. I know. But it will be all right. You will find your people.” That’s exactly how she said it. Your people. Like I was a prophet preparing to gather my flock. At least she didn’t say “peeps.” My mother never tried to be cool. It’s one of the things that made her cool sometimes… “It will be awkward at first, but it gets better. you find your people and you make your tribe and you protect each other. From the wolves.”
This thought is the backdrop to the story which explores Branton Middle School after cell phones are banned and when post-it notes become the new public form of social communication. Deedee, Wolf, and Bench are Frost’s “people” and their main connection is that they’re all very smart (and geeky). Girls aren’t really part of the picture, yet, and so they spend most weekends playing elaborate Dungeons and Dragons games. Then one day Rose Holland moves to their school and sits AT. THEIR. TABLE. in the lunchroom. The story truly builds to an exciting, sweaty-hand climax with a second crushing climax that I admit made my eyes sweat. Middle School is a complicated age and Anderson truly captures the complexities of awkward conversation and bullying along with the pain associated with rapidly changing personalities.