This is a book about boys - bys who do stupid things ike pick each others noses; boys who live with fathers who won't stand up for them; boys whose parents don't see them; boys whose parents have bumper stickers that say, "My kid makes straights As." This book is about a sixth grade teacher named Ms. Bixby.
The story opens with Brand, Steve and Topher happily telling Rebecca that she has cooties. Yep -it's them....the ones with the maturity of drunken goats.
Then out of nowhere into the world of flailing boys a bomb drops. Ms. Bixby has cancer. She's leaving.
Ms. Bixby is their teacher. For each one of these boys she holds a special place because she sees them and she gets them in a world where no one else does.
So, three nosepicking secret agent hopefuls will decide to give their teacher the best last day ever. Humor, irreverence and some of the greatest heart you will ever read in a book for middle schoolers give this book superpowers. We will unpeel these guys and see their pain and get to know them from the inside out. They are going to make sense to us just as they make beautiful sense to Ms. Bixby.
Every child deserves a Ms. Bixby in her or his life. And every Ms. Bixby deserves a last day created by amazing young people like this band of brothers.
Ages 9-13 318 pages 978-0062338174
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
Note: This one needs the tissue box. Read alike: Walk Two Moons; Bridge to Terabithia; The Honest Truth ******* From Harper Collins: ohn David Anderson, author of Sidekicked and The Dungeoneers, returns with a funny, heartwarming, and heartbreaking contemporary story about three boys, one teacher, and a day none of them will ever forget. Everyone knows there are different kinds of teachers. The boring ones, the mean ones, the ones who try too hard, the ones who stopped trying long ago. The ones you’ll never remember, and the ones you want to forget. Ms. Bixby is none of these. She’s the sort of teacher who makes you feel like school is somehow worthwhile. Who recognizes something in you that sometimes you don’t even see in yourself. Who you never want to disappoint. What Ms. Bixby is, is one of a kind. Topher, Brand, and Steve know this better than anyone. And so when Ms. Bixby unexpectedly announces that she won’t be able to finish the school year, they come up with a risky plan—more of a quest, really—to give Ms. Bixby the last day she deserves. Through the three very different stories they tell, we begin to understand what Ms. Bixby means to each of them—and what the three of them mean to each other.