Posted

 By: John David Anderson

Location: FIC AND

Genre: Family Life, Divorce, Teenagers, Bullying

With multiple starred reviews, don't miss this humorous, poignant, and original contemporary story about bullying, broken friendships, social media, and the failures of communication between kids. From John David Anderson, author of the acclaimed Ms. Bixby’s Last Day.

In middle school, words aren’t just words. They can be weapons. They can be gifts. The right words can win you friends or make you enemies. They can come back to haunt you. Sometimes they can change things forever.

When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes—though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well.

In the middle of this, a new girl named Rose arrives at school and sits at Frost’s lunch table. Rose is not like anyone else at Branton Middle School, and it’s clear that the close circle of friends Frost has made for himself won’t easily hold another. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.

Post-it notes. That was what started the war. Seeing how the tiniest things can snowball into such a big event that adults had to be involved somehow reminded me of my situations. From the expodition, we were introduced to a foursome who were so close, they seemed to be stuck together by super glue. They would've never guessed that a girl just might be their friendship's kryptonite. A couple of years ago, me and my friends formed a clique, and just like the foursome, we would've never saw that we were going to be separated because of a fight. While reading this book, I've come to this phrase that said, "running the gauntlet." Between, good and bad relationships, we had to survive. What really surprised me was how much I understood this phrase. There was this one time when Frost saw his friend getting thrown in the air in congratulation, my heart tugged. Not only was that sympathy for Frost, but I realized I have also been through this situation. Reading this book was like watching Keeping up with the Kardashians but about me. I really enjoyed this "mirror" book and would recommend it to people who would like a humorous realistic fiction that reminds them of their sad life (kidding).