This book reminded me of the Outsiders in that it did an extremely good job of telling a story from the perspective of the protagonist. It did so while creating a very realistic portrayal of the kinds of thoughts a young man would have. Even though the story was told from only one character's point of view, it was easy to relate to other characters in the story because their own faults and vulnerabilities were made plain even though a young perspective. It was also easy to root for the main character, because even though he was pretty hard on himself, he did legitimately face a great deal of challenges that many people in life to do not overcome. He also showed great bravery in the book, such as when he stopped, afraid to go to into the new school, and when he could have turned around and returned to his old school, he moved into the new school. Even though he thought he was just obeying the rules of behavior, it was also brave to stand up to a kid much tougher than him when he was getting bullied, although there were probably wiser courses of actions he could have taken.
I do not think I would use this book in my own classroom because there is some material in the book that could be considered problematic by administrators and even more by some parents, such as sexual content and language. I say this largely because I am in a middle school classroom. In a high school classroom, the students might be considered old enough that such material would be more of a non-issue, but I would still be wary of it because of parental concerns. I felt that it did a good job of addressing important issues such as race, socioeconomic status, and bullying, but there is other literature that addresses these subjects that do not bring with them such potential problems.
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