Restart

I cannot say enough good things about this book!! It is hands down THE BEST realistic fiction MG book I’ve read in recent memory. My son’s teacher assigned it as a summer read for her incoming sixth-grade class, and the premise sounded so interesting that I decided to read it with him.

The story centers around a boy, Chase, who loses his memory. At the beginning of the book, we meet Chase when he first awakens after his accident and realizes he has no idea who he is, nor does he have any memory about anything or anyone else in his life.

As the book progresses, Chase and the reader learns about who he was before his accident. The story is written in the first person, told mainly from Chase’s point of view, but we also get the perspective of some other characters (all classmates of Chase’s). All in all, this is an excellent story about friendship, forgiveness, and redemption that teaches kids about taking responsibility for one’s actions and standing up for what is right. A must-read book! Enjoy!

There’s nothing like an inspirational middle-grade novel to restore one’s faith in humanity. Restart was funny, original, and thought-provoking.

For my full review, please visit: https://www.krwardbookreview.com/2021/05/restart-by-gordan-korman.html

This is absolutely my favorite book ever! I’ve read it twice already. I bought it a long time ago and lost it so I read it online a few days ago. I looked for it an hour ago and found it! I will pass thins book down to generations through my family. I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK.

Re-Start, by Gordon Korman, is the second book by this author I’ve read and reviewed. The first, Ungifted, I gave a fairly positive review to
. I like the author fine, but I’m not trying to follow him or anything–this is one of the books my son is reading for his Battle of the Books at school, and he, my daughter, and my wife have all read it and said I would enjoy it. And they’re right!

In both books, a troublemaking middle schooler finds himself with an unexpected second chance to do things differently, and tries to take advantage of it. Seems to be a Korman theme! In this case the troublemaker is Chase Ambrose, who has just awoken from a coma a few days before his eighth-grade year starts. Chase fell off the roof of his house and conked his head, and now has complete amnesia concerning everything that occurred before the fall. He doesn’t even remember his own mother.
As the days go on, Chase learns that he was pretty much a jerk before. He and his best buddies, Bear and Aaron, were the stars on the middle school football team, which they led to its first state championship in 25 years. They had the run of the school, and took advantage of that to bully nerds and dweebs as much as they liked, and they liked to do it a lot. They even bullied Joel Weber so mercilessly that Joel had to enroll at a private school in another state.

Chase is horrified at the person he used to be, and at the barbaric behavior of Bear and Aaron. Because the doctor said he couldn’t play football the rest of the year, he joins the video club and really enjoys it. The geeky members are terrified of him at first, but soon realize he’s genuinely changed. What’s more, he’s really good at camerawork, and within a few weeks has become a valued member of the club. He also joins Shoshanna Weber, Joel’s twin sister, on her visits to a local senior citizens’ center so they can interview a Korean War vet for a video project she’s putting together. (But what would Joel think if he knew the kid who’d bullied him out of school was now hanging out with his sister?)

The football team, however, is really struggling without their star player. Bear and Aaron hatch an evil plan to spoil Chase’s newfound friendship with the nerds and remind him of who he really is. Soon Chase will have to make a decision about who his real friends are–only he doesn’t remember enough about his previous life to be fully informed about the possible ramifications if he chooses the nerds over the jocks.
This was a great book–tons of humor and a meaningful story. The characters are really well-drawn. Even Bear and Aaron, the villains, are well-rounded, and bad as they are, you can see the attractive qualities in them that led Chase to be their buddy. I did find the ending a little pat–in particular, Chase’s dad, who had seemed to tie his love to his son to Chase’s performance on the football team, has a real change of heart at the end that comes out of nowhere..

Another strange thing I noticed in the book is that I think it was originally aimed at an older, high school-aged audience. For instance, Chase’s dad is proud of his son, the star football player, because he himself was on the last middle school team to go the state championship decades before, and he looks back on that period as the best time of his life. Plus, all the townspeople know who Chase and his friends are because of the football team, which is why they’re able to get away with so much. But this doesn’t seem right–it’s high school football that is the most important thing in so many small towns, and it seems silly for Chase’s dad to look back on middle school as the best time of his life. Moreover, Shoshanna wants her video project to win the National Video Journalism Award. This sounds a lot more like something a college application-building high schooler would be interested in than a middle schooler.

That doesn’t make anything wrong with the book. I suspect Gordon Korman originally wrote it as a YA, not a middle grade book, and decided to change it. Or maybe the publisher asked him to, since he’s known as a middle grade author. Regardless, it’s more of an oddity than anything else. The book is still well-written, hilarious, and sometimes touching, and despite it’s slightly overly sentimental ending, I would recommend it to any middle schooler, and any adults that might be interested, too.

This book is one of my favorite books in the entire world! I love how it’s actually told mostly in a used-to-be bully! Most authors write about people who are BEING bullied but this book is mostly told in the perspective of someone who used to bully people to when they were chased out of town, and then gets amnesia and everything changes! He actually becomes nice!

Amazing book. Great for kids and teens

I loved Restart, by Gordon Korman. It was one of the books that I will never forget. I recommend this book to anybody, and I hope they enjoy it as much as I do!
#Restart
#Gordon Korman
#Chase
#Shoshana
#Joel

Who said middle school is cruel? Sadly bullies exist and all victims are not necessarily heard and getting justice properly. But if you are the victim, and your bully completely loses his memories and becomes a super good guy, would you accept him? Restart teaches upper elementary school to middle school students, and even high school students “empathy” by sharing realistic emotions at the each episode, rage, jealous, doubt, and injustice from different people’s perspectives. Chase’s change after the accident blew everyone away and made them feel awkward, but eventually his good intention build positive relationships with his “new” friends. You would feel hopeful after the read. School teachers must include this book in their students’ must-read-book list!

this is my favorite book of all time and recommend it to everyone its so cool to see the main character change through the book

Great book for mid-elementary to middle school kids! Themes of bullying, the meaning of friendship and the value of every individual.
Chase falls off his roof and ends up with a concussion and amnesia. He doesn’t even remember his own mother. While he struggles to find out who he was, he learns that he has an opportunity to become a different person. What if a tragic accident was the best thing that ever happened in your life?