For a moment here I want you to think about something that really matters to - something you feel so passionately about. Now, imagine that you get an assignment for school - middle school in this case- and you have to argue against...that's right .... against how you really feel. Your teacher is asking you to give the arguments for the complete opposite side of this issue.
Set in Rye, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC, this middle school student body has cheered for their teams, The Braves, for decades. Now, something is happening. There are Native American middle schoolers attending Rye who don't want to see their culture demeaned and vilified week after week at sporting events. The issue starts as a smolder, starts smoking, and turns into a raging bonfire that involves parents, alumi, the School Board, and students.
An eighth grade English teacher decides to assign her class to debate this issue. Six students are chosen to present for the debate itself. Three students will debate for the "keep our mascot" side and three students will debate for the "change our mascot" side. The twist here is that the students are being asked to present the arguments they personally oppose. Callie, a Black Cherokee Nation citizen, is assigned to fight to keep the mascot.
This novel in verse presents the lives of each of the six students so we get to know their personal story and we can walk in their shoes for a short time. As we hear the thoughts of each student, our own ideas, thoughts, opinions, and feelings come up. Do we agree they should change the Mascot or not?
Rare is the moment these days it seems when anyone listens to anyone else's opinion. Set down in print, in pages, readers will hear all sides of this story in their own time, in their own space. They will come to this story with their own truths, opinions handed down in the family, opinions delivered in videos from the internet. Now is the chance for each of us to sit with these six kids and listen. Familiar opinions and the thinking that creates them gets the tension rising. Where do you stand?
An important story for our time. An amazing read to begin a discussion, project, debate in classrooms everywhere.
256 pages 978-1623543808 Ages 10-13
Keywords: novel in verse, prejudice and racism, school issues, respecting others, alternating perspectives, Native Americans, traditions, diversity, diverse books, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
Editor's note: Rye, Virginia is a fictional town.
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What if a school's mascot is seen as racist, but not by everyone? In this compelling middle-grade novel in verse, two best-selling BIPOC authors tackle this hot-button issue.
In Rye, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC, people work hard, kids go to school, and football is big on Friday nights. An eighth-grade English teacher creates an assignment for her class to debate whether Rye’s mascot should stay or change. Now six middle schoolers–-all with different backgrounds and beliefs–-get involved in the contentious issue that already has the suburb turned upside down with everyone choosing sides and arguments getting ugly.
Told from several perspectives, readers see how each student comes to new understandings about identity, tradition, and what it means to stand up for real change.---from the publisher
