Book Review - Schooled

Recently, I visited the library with a friend, who was looking for good books for her nephew. The children's librarian recommended several books, and I ended up picking up two of them for myself! This was one of them:

Schooled by Gordon Korman

I enjoyed this book a great deal, though, at first, I was resistant to the stereotyped weirdo homeschooler idea. The public schooled kids were also pretty heavily stereotyped, and, in the end, I decided that the stereotyping is what makes this book so humorous and so powerful at the same time. It exaggerates to make a point.

Capricorn (Cap) is the new kid in the 8th grade because his grandmother, the only person he's ever really known in his life, breaks her hip and needs to recover in the hospital for several weeks. Because the 8th graders are in the habit of electing the the least "cool" or popular student in the school to be their class president, Cap becomes class president. The "cool" kids are ready to make fun of him all year, but they discover that it's pretty difficult to make fun of someone who doesn't understand the social rules and has been heavily indoctrinated with "hippy" values.

Book Review - Eleven

Recently, I visited the library with a friend, who was looking for good books for her nephew. The children's librarian recommended several books, and I ended up picking up two of them for myself! This was one of them:

Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff
 
A fascinating idea but not a particularly believable outcome. Sam turns eleven and discovers a newspaper clipping in the attic that seems to indicate that he's been missing, which could mean that he's somehow living with the wrong people and that his family is not really his family. Sam's endeavor to find out the truth about himself is hampered by the fact that he struggles with reading. Sam enlists the help of a new girl at school, who seems to have her nose in a book constantly. This book is the story of the friendship that develops between them as they sort out the truth about Sam. There were some very sweet and beautiful things about the story, but, on the whole, I didn't find the ending believable, and Sam seems much younger than 11 (though he has some extraordinary wood-working skills).