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Sonnenblick, Jordan

The Boy Who Failed Dodgeball

256 pp. | Scholastic | June, 2022 | Trade ISBN 978-1-338-74960-1 $17.99
(3) 4-6 Sonnenblick’s previous memoir (The Boy Who Failed Show and Tell, rev. 3/21) delved into fourth grade; this covers sixth grade, his first year in middle school. I.S. 61 in Staten Island is a music magnet school where band students are practically treated like royalty, but Jordan must work hard to earn his band teacher’s approval. His wisecracking instincts often get the best of him, earning him frequent visits to the assistant principal’s office. Jordan effortlessly scores high marks on quizzes and assignments, and he has a small group of close friends who get into constant mischief with him, but he still deals with typical adolescent issues such as dating and friendship, social anxiety and cliques, and fighting as a means of conflict resolution. Jordan also begins to experience a burgeoning sense of identity and a broadening awareness of society and culture. John Lennon’s untimely death hits him hard, as does an anti-Semitic encounter at an amusement park, spurring him to recommit to his bar mitzvah preparation. Sonnenblick delivers another solid middle-grade memoir—in prose—that, with its mix of warmth, humor, and relationships, should appeal to fans of Raina Telgemeier’s Smile and other popular memoirs in comic form.
Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt

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