Twelve-year-old Will is sad. His refuge is his bedroom with his turtles. Will’s passion for turtles is not the main reason he is teased at school and called Turtle Boy. Will has a mild facial disfigurement. He barely has a chin, making him look different which is just what bullies thrive on...others differences.
Will’s family is Jewish, therefore his mom and Rabbi Harris pressure him to prepare for his bar mitzvah. He’s completely reluctant because he veers away from any activity that draws attention to himself. In order to complete the contract of the bar mitzvah, Will must participate in a community-service project. He is assigned to reach out to a dying teen named RJ. RJ is dying and now his whole life is inside a hospital room and Will doesn’t like hospitals. They give him flashbacks to when his Dad died. Will was 4 when his father went in for a simple hernia procedure and there was a complication. His father died.
At first, the boys don’t get along, but then RJ shares his bucket list with Will. Here are some of the things he wants to do: get a pet, ride a roller coaster, go to a concert attend school dance, dance with a girl, and swim in the ocean. This concept is foreign to Will who is happy to stay in his room with the simple company of his turtles. RJ’s disease takes a negative turn and Will realizes he needs to tackle the bucket list on his new friend’s behalf before it’s too late. It seems like an impossible mission, and is WAY outside Will’s comfort zone. He completes each task with RJ’s guidance and Will begins to see that life is too short to live in a shell.
There is a lot of wisdom in this book with some humor tossed in. I really enjoyed reading about the Jewish practices highlighted in the story. My review only touches of a tiny part of the events in the life of Will, making this a must read so you too can experience this marvelous debut novel.
The story is less about a boy being bullied and more about how he steps out of his comfort zone to help someone else and ending up helping his own self.
I predict Turtle Boy to be a big hit with middle and young adult readers. (Fiction. 10-14)
Thank you Random House Children and Delacorte Books for Young Readers for granting me permission to read this ARC. It’s a winner
Recommended by: Josephine Sorrell, Librarian, North Carolina, USA
***************
This middle-grade debut, which will surely appeal to fans of Wonder, explores self-image, friendship, and grief while highlighting the importance of taking chances. It will make you laugh and cry, and you will be eager to share it with someone you love.
Seventh grade is not going well for Will Levine. Kids at school bully him because of his funny-looking chin. His science teacher, Ms. Kuper, finds out about the turtles he spent his summer collecting from the marsh behind school and orders him to release them back into the wild. And for his Bar Mitzvah community service project, he has to go to the hospital to visit RJ, an older boy struggling with an incurable disease. Unfortunately, Will hates hospitals.
At first, the boys don't get along, but then RJ shares his bucket list with Will. Among the things he wants to do: ride a roller coaster, go to a concert and a school dance, swim in the ocean. To Will, happiness is hanging out in his room, alone, preferably with his turtles. But as RJ's disease worsens, Will realizes he needs to tackle the bucket list on his new friend's behalf before it's too late. It seems like an impossible mission, way outside Will's comfort zone. But as he completes each task with RJ's guidance, Will learns that life is too short to live in a shell.---from the publisher
400 pages 978-0593121573 Ages 10 and up
Keywords: friendship, friends, new experiences, bullying, disease, understanding others, respecting others, finding yourself, middle school, self image, self esteem, grief, humor, 10 year old, 11 year old, 12 year old, 13 year old
