I would consider this book the literary equivalent of a slap in the face. The story itself is not so much of a slap - it is a childrens story about friendship and hope. So how can that possibly be a bad thing? Let me count the ways...As I was reading this book, I found myself rolling my eyes. Right away, I became annoyed. The girls' fifth grade? (I might have made that up) teacher holds up lemons to her classroom every day before the bell rings for dismissal. "What do we do when life gives us lemons? We turn them into something sugary and sweet; lemonade!" she cheers. I am sorry, but if one of my teachers repeated this cliche, overly cheese-ified line every day, I might lose my mind. And perhaps this is the cynic in me coming out. Maybe I simply was unable to revert back to my fifth grade self while reading this book. Maybe if I were a fifth grader reading it, I would wonder why my teacher did not encourage us in this way. At this point, I just couldn't handle it.
There were two things that were even more upsetting to me about this book. One was Marilyn's (one of the young students) distress about her weight. As I was reading, I thought to myself, do kids this young worry about being five pounds heavier than their best friend? Because Marilyn looked no bigger than her friend in the illustrations. Is this really an issue suitable for students in fifth grade? A few extra pounds?
What was most disheartening to me about the book, though, was the relationship the two girls had with their teacher. The teacher talked to the girls about her fiance and personal life in a way that I thought crossed the line. When I was reading this book I was scribbling furiously in my notebook in response to this relationship. "Unprofessional!" I wrote. "The student/teacher relationship lines have been blurred!" "The teacher is in no position to share that kind of personal information with her students!" As a future teacher, it is very important to me that teachers have a close, trusting, and open relationship with their students. However, it is the teacher's responsibility to keep some sort of professional distance. Unfortunately, I think the professional boundaries were overstepped in this story.
You're probably still wondering how this could be considered a slap in the face. I wrote "unrealistic" in my notebook five times while reading this book, mostly in response to the student/teacher relationship. When I turned the last page of the book, though, guess what I found. A picture of the three real-life characters - two students and a teacher about whom this story was based. Whoops. I guess it is possible; obviously, it has to be, since this story happened. It just didn't come off as real to me.
It really was a story with good intentions. Unfortunately, I just was not able to believe it. This one probably will not appear in my classroom library.
Though your response to this book was not positive, you made me want to go check this book out of the library. When I was reading your blog I felt your passion and anger. You had such a strong response to the book that you made me want to read it to see if i feel the same way. I also liked your strategy for explaining your feelings about the book. You did not come out and just say you do not like the book, or it was boring, because that may hurt the author. You made many good arguments related back to your life why you think this book is very unrealistic. I think you are correct when you said there were many issues brought up in the book that were inappropriate. It does not seem right that the teacher is discussing her personal life with her students, unless it pertains to teaching. I think it is always good to come across books like these, so you know which books you do not want to include in your personal library in your classroom.
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