Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Spotlight on Realistic Fiction and Fantasy

Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

Sloppy joe button, spatu-copter, spork phone, rubber glove suction cups, canolli-oculars, chicken nugget bombs…look out!  Here comes Lunch Lady!  Let’s shine the spotlight on this book of fantasy:

Summary

Hector, Dee and Terrence are curious about Lunch Lady’s life outside of school.  Little do they know she is a secret agent, solving crimes and taking care of bad guys!  She has help from Betty, her co-worker, who creates interesting gadget’s for Lunch Lady to use like a spatu-copter: part spatula, part helicopter.  Or rubber glove suction cups: good for hiding on the ceiling during covert operations.

Lunch Lady and Betty think Mr. O’Connell’s substitute, Mr. Pasteur, is up to something.  They make a plan to distract Mr. Pasteur and check out his classroom.  Lunch Lady finds a computer disk with blueprints for robots.  After school, Lunch Lady follows Mr. Pasteur…and the students decide to follow Lunch Lady.  They end up at a warehouse where Lunch Lady finds out Mr. Pasteur is not human.  He’s a robot working with Mr. Edison to help him beat out Mr. O’Connell and win the Teacher of the Year award.  Mr. Edison has created a team of robots to help him with his plan.  The students come into the warehouse and Mr. Edison sends the robots to capture them and Lunch Lady.   

Can Lunch Lady save herself and the students?  Can Mr. Edison and the robots be stopped?  Find out in the first book of the Lunch Lady series!

Discussion

Krosoczka’s book is an engaging graphic novel.  He connects fantasy and fiction in his book, with his interpretations in a graphic format.  This format is highly visual with an easy to follow structure.  He uses square and rectangular boxes to detail the events in the book.  His illustrations are full of detail to depict action sequences and include talking bubbles and labels.  The conversations within the talking bubbles move the story along.  He uses labels in small print for various sounds and gadget identification, as well as large print with capital letters for loud sounds.  The talking bubbles and labels are equally important in helping the reader understand the events in the story.

Lunch Lady is a dynamic character readers will be cheering for.  Readers will appreciate seeing an ordinary woman doing extraordinary things.  She fits the role as a typical lunch lady, with her friendly conversations with students and teachers.  But, she also has her secret agent side, collaborating with Betty, looking for clues and planning her strategy.  The students, Hector, Dee and Terrance, are believable characters.  The book takes place in the realistic setting of a school.  Readers will relate to the students’ curiosity about what the staff members do outside of school.  They will relate to their interactions with each other, with teachers and with other students, like the school bully, Milmoe. 

Readers will be intrigued by the elements of fantasy included in the book, like the secret passage in the school kitchen and the gadgets Betty and Lunch Lady use throughout the book.  Readers will appreciate the humor included in the book, like Lunch Lady’s reference to a “knuckle sandwich” and the expressions she uses when she is in trouble like “Oh, doughnuts” and “Cauliflower!”  Themes consistent with the genre of fantasy are also included.  Lunch Lady works to overcome obstacles and completes the task of saving the day.

Overall, the strength of this book is its consistency.  Readers will enjoy all of the elements of fantasy it includes like Lunch Lady’s secret agent actions and gadgets.  This is the first book in Krosoczka’s low fantasy series.  Readers will be hooked after book one.  The ending will leave readers hanging and give them a feed forward into the second book.

Awards/Reviews

Jarrett J. Krosoczka has published picture books, graphic novels and will soon release a chapter book.  His Lunch Lady series has won a Children's Choice Book Award in the Third to Fourth Grade Book of the Year category twice and was nominated for a Will Eisner Comic Industry Award.  This series is also being developed into a feature film.

Here are samples of a few reviews:

“This tongue-in-cheek superheroine graphic novel will hit the spot for chapter-book readers.  Lunch Lady and Betty, her assistant in both the cafeteria and her role of wrong-­righting supersleuth, investigate the strange case of an absent teacher, his creepy substitute, and a plan to grab the Teacher of the Year Award by truly foul means.  Three little kids join in the action as Lunch Lady, equipped with a variety of high-tech kitchen gadgets like a spatu-copter and a lunch-tray laptop, tracks a cleverly disguised robot to his maker’s lab, where a whole army of cyborgs require kicking, stomping, and the wielding of fish-stick nunchucks. Yellow-highlighted pen-and-ink cartoons are as energetic and smile-provoking as Lunch Lady’s epithets of “Cauliflower!” and Betty’s ultimate weapon, the hairnet. There is a nice twist in the surprise ending, and the kids’ ability to stand up to the school bully shows off their newfound confidence in a credible manner.  Little details invite and reward repeat readings with visual as well as verbal punning.   – Booklist

“Punk Farm creator Krosoczka breaks out of picture books with this agreeably silly graphic novel for young readers.  Classmates Hector, Dee and Terrence have always wondered about the Lunch Lady: What does she do when she’s not making chicken-patty pizza?  Tending to her many cats?  Taking care of her family?  After some amateur sleuthing, the kids discover that their Lunch Lady is out fighting the forces of evil, of course, with her trusty sidekick, Betty.  This dynamic duo uncovers a nefarious plot hatched by a villainous teacher to overrun the school with cyborg substitutes.  Backed up by Betty’s ingenious arsenal of amalgamated cafeteria utensils including Spatu-copter, Chicken Nugget Bombs and Lunch Tray Laptop, the two are on the case.  This graphic novel alternates between boxy, regular panels and full-page spreads, keeping readers’ visual interest piqued.  Filled with goofy puns and grayscale art with cheery yellow accents, this is a delightfully fun escapist read.  Be sure to recommend this to fans of Captain Underpants.” – Kirkus Reviews

“In this campy graphic novel series debut, Krosoczka (Punk Farm) introduces Lunch Lady, a scrappy, permed crime fighter with rolled-up sleeves, yellow dishwashing gloves and an apron.  Down in the school's boiler room, she and her older sidekick, Betty, test gadgets (like a handheld spatula-helicopter and a banana boomerang) and keep an eye on things.  Three children—Hector, Dee and Terrence—speculate about Lunch Lady's after-school life and follow her when she jumps on her moped, in hot pursuit of a suspicious substitute teacher. Krosoczka's plot is somewhat thin: the title and cover illustration announce the trouble with the sub; the only mysteries are the mastermind and motive behind the sub's deployment.  Yet Krosoczka crafts Lunch Lady as a tough, capable heroine who deploys such exclamations as ‘Nutritious!’ and bon mots like ‘Should I serve up some whaaamburgers and cries?’ when on a robot-destroying tear.  With plenty of silliness and slapstick in the text and panel art alike, this comic should alleviate lunch-line boredom with visions of servers wielding fishstick-nunchucks and growling, ‘Today's special is a knuckle sandwich.’” – Publishers Weekly

Teacher’s Tools

Students could engage in a genre study with graphic novels in Literature Circles.  Books like the Babymouse series or the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series could also be included.

Students could engage in an author study by reading other books in the Lunch Lady series by Krosoczka.  Students could compare and contrast the elements of the series which stay the same and elements that change as they read other books.  Students could record ideas on a Double Bubble map. 

Students could create other gadgets for Lunch Lady.  Materials from the lunchroom could be used as props for students.  Students could also diagram and label their new gadgets, then write about how the gadget could be used by Lunch Lady to solve crimes or save the day.

Students can use this book as a mentor text to write what might happen next (at the end of the book) in graphic novel form.

Bibliographic Information

Krosoczka, Jarrett J. 2009. Lunch Lady and the Cyborg Substitute. New York: Knopf Books for Young Readers. ISBN 978-0-375-84683-0.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Spotlight on Realistic Fiction and Fantasy

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Miles experiences many “firsts” at boarding school with his new group of friends like his first drink, first smoke, first prank…and first death of someone close to him.  Let’s shine the spotlight on this gripping work of realistic fiction:

Summary

Miles is an expert on famous last words.  He has memorized the last words of many historic figures who are deceased.  Francois Rabelais’s last words rang true for Miles, “I go to seek a Great Perhaps” (Green, 2005, p. 5).  Miles decides he is ready for a change.  He makes the decision to attend boarding school at Culver Creek.  His dad, uncles and cousins have attended the same boarding school, but Miles is going to find his “Great Perhaps.”  He feels there is more out there for him in his life and he is ready to seek it out.

His roommate is Chip, but everyone calls him the “Colonel.” The Colonel nicknames Miles “Pudge.”  Pudge makes another new friend, Takumi, through the Colonel.  Then, there’s their neighbor, Alaska, who is also friends with the Colonel.  Pudge is mesmerized by Alaska.  He is taken with her beauty and is intrigued by her insights on relationships, school and life.  He has strong feelings for Alaska from day one, even though she has a boyfriend, Jake.  Alaska sees Pudge as a friend and tries to set him up with a girl named Lara.  They go out on a “triple and a half date” (Green, 2008, p. 80) with Colonel and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Sara, Alaska, Jake and Takumi. 

As Pudge settles into his new school, his new friends introduce him to their routines on campus: eating bufriedos (fried burritos) in the cafeteria, hiding alcohol in various containers in their room, smoking in the bathroom with the shower turned on, meeting at the Smoking Hole and planning pranks on Weekday Warriors (the students who only come to campus during the week).   

After Christmas, the friends start planning the junior class prank.  The Colonel has a plan to start with a pre-prank he calls “Barn Night.”  They divide and conquer by distracting Mr. Starnes (the dean of students), setting off fireworks in his yard, putting blue dye in the gel and conditioner of some students who pranked Pudge and sending fake progress reports to a large group of Weekday Warriors.  Then, they meet up at a barn in the woods to spend the night.  They play a drinking game “best day/worst day” and share more details about each of their lives.  The group finds out about Alaska’s best day – going to the zoo with her mom – and her worst day – her mom died of an aneurysm the day after their zoo trip.

The group wakes up hung over the following day, then the Colonel, Pudge and Alaska meet up to celebrate their Barn Night success the following night.   They drink wine and talk most of the night.  After the Colonel falls asleep, Alaska and Pudge play “Truth or Dare.”  Its Alaska and Jake’s anniversary, but after Pudge requests a Dare, Alaska and Pudge start kissing.   Alaska gets tired and goes to sleep in her room. 

Then it all happens so fast…Alaska comes back to their room upset and says she has to get out of there because she’s made a mistake again.  Pudge and Colonel agree to distract Mr. Starnes with fireworks and Alaska drives away.  The next day, Mr. Starnes calls the students to the gym.  He shares that Alaska was in a car accident and passed away.  The Colonel and Pudge are in shock.  They are inconsolable and blame themselves for what has occurred.  They struggle with wondering why Alaska was so upset and with knowing they could have stopped her from leaving.   

The Colonel and Pudge find a note in the margin of one of Alaska’s books that lead them to believe she may not have died from driving drunk.  They begin to wonder if she may have taken her own life.  They try to cope with her death and their feelings of grief and guilt while searching for answers.  They learn to come to grips with what they have experienced together and try to remember Alaska they way they know she would have wanted them to remember her.  They plan one final prank in her honor as the official junior class prank.  

Unfortunately, they do not find out definitive answers about Alaska’s death, but they do find answers about friendship and life.  The book concludes with Pudge’s religion paper, which serves as a final goodbye to Alaska.

Discussion

Green’s book will have a strong impact on readers.  He holds nothing back with his writing style.  The characters’ raw emotions will touch readers.  The story Green develops feels relatable, like it could take place in a reader’s hometown or with a reader’s group of friends.  It feels like a true story being told and fits with the genre of realistic fiction. 

The book is set up in two sections: before and after.  The events in the before section take place before Alaska’s accident and the events in the after section take place after the accident.  Therefore, the plot is developed in a linear format.  Within the two sections, the text divides with headings signifying the day before or after the accident, like “one hundred thirty-six days before” or “twenty-nine days after” then shares the events of that day.  Green sets up the plot methodically.  Readers know an upcoming event will impact the book, but they will not expect what is to come.

Pudge serves as the narrator and provides the reader with an inside view into his thoughts, emotions and experiences during his daily life.  He is an honest teenager who searches for his identity and for more meaning in his life at Culver Creek.  He finds a group of friends to fit in with and negotiates his role within the group and with the Colonel. 

Green’s writing style invites the reader into the book.  He includes various dynamic characters from the Colonel and Alaska, to Takumi and Lara.  Each one has specific traits with definitive actions and emotions.  Readers will be able to select a character with whom they relate.  They will be able to check their thoughts and emotions against the situations within the book and put themselves into different character’s shoes. 

Green accurately portrays the friendships and relationships between characters.  He includes teenage drinking, smoking and cursing in a way that aligns with the characters identities and with the flow of the text.  He also deals with intimate relationships in a suitable way.  His descriptions of intimate thoughts and situations are tasteful.  His portrayal of teenage sexuality fits with the actions and emotions of teenagers.

This book has faced criticism for its sexual content, as well as the descriptions of teenage drinking, smoking and use of explicit language.  Readers can make decisions about selecting this book.  One consideration for readers is the role of this book as a “mirror and window” (Vardell, 2008, p. 140).  Readers will be able to see themselves reflected in this book and expand their worldview about the experiences of others.   

Overall, the strength of this book is Green’s ability to evoke emotions from his readers.  The characters voices, emotions and experiences will impact readers’ emotions throughout the book.  Readers will laugh at the pranks, drop their jaw when reading about Alaska’s accident, cry with the Coloniel and Pudge through their sadness and feel a bit of closure reading Pudge’s final paper for his religion class.

Awards/Reviews

John Green has won many awards for his work.  In 2007, An Abundance of Katherines, was a Michael L. Printz Award Honor book.  Paper Towns won the Edgar Award for the Best Young Adult Novel in 2009.  His books have also been recognized on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Looking for Alaska was the winner of the Michael L. Printz Award, an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Quick Pick, a Los Angeles Times 2005 Book Prize Finalist and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.

Here are examples of a few reviews:

“Readers will only hope that this is not the last word from this promising new author.” - Publishers Weekly

“Sixteen-year-old Miles Halter's adolescence has been one long nonevent - no challenge, no girls, no mischief, and no real friends.  Seeking what Rabelais called the "Great Perhaps," he leaves Florida for a boarding school in Birmingham, AL. His roommate, Chip, is a dirt-poor genius scholarship student with a Napoleon complex who lives to one-up the school's rich preppies.  Chip's best friend is Alaska Young, with whom Miles and every other male in her orbit falls instantly in love.  She is literate, articulate, and beautiful, and she exhibits a reckless combination of adventurous and self-destructive behavior.  She and Chip teach Miles to drink, smoke, and plot elaborate pranks.  Alaska's story unfolds in all-night bull sessions, and the depth of her unhappiness becomes obvious.  Green's dialogue is crisp, especially between Miles and Chip.  His descriptions and Miles's inner monologues can be philosophically dense, but are well within the comprehension of sensitive teen readers.  The chapters of the novel are headed by a number of days "before" and "after" what readers surmise is Alaska's suicide. These placeholders sustain the mood of possibility and foreboding, and the story moves methodically to its ambiguous climax.  The language and sexual situations are aptly and realistically drawn, but sophisticated in nature.  Miles's narration is alive with sweet, self-deprecating humor, and his obvious struggle to tell the story truthfully adds to his believability.  Like Phineas in John Knowles's A Separate Peace (S & S, 1960), Green draws Alaska so lovingly, in self-loathing darkness as well as energetic light, that readers mourn her loss along with her friends.— School Library Journal

“Green…has a writer’s voice, so self-assured and honest that one is startled to learn that this novel is his first.  The anticipated favorable comparisons to Holden Caufield are richly deserved in this highly recommended addition to young adult literature.”- VOYA

Teacher’s Tools

Students could engage in a book study about banned/challenged books.  Teachers could allow students the choice of a banned/challenged book to read (with parental permission) within a Literature Circle.  

An interview with John Green could be shared with students from: http://www.voya.com/2012/10/19/wouldnt-you-like-to-know-john-green/

Students could watch episodes of Green’s video blog, “Vlogbrothers” on YouTube.  Students could create video blogs discussing this book or the topic of banned/challenged books.

Students could watch Green’s YouTube video defending this book: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHMPtYvZ8tM and discuss reasons why this book should or should not be banned.

Students could explore Green’s website: www.johngreenbooks.com.  The link for Looking for Alaska takes readers to a page with questions and more information about the book.  Students could discuss their discoveries about the book and the author.

Bibliographic Information

Green, John. 2005. Looking for Alaska. New York: Dutton Books. ISBN: 0-525-47506-0.

Vardell, Sylvia, M. 2008. Children’s Literature in Action: A Librarian’s Guide. Westport: Libraries Unlimited. ISBN: 978-1-59158-557-2.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Spotlight on Realistic Fiction and Fantasy

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

What if you found notes left for you by a stranger?  What if those notes prove that someone knows what is going to happen in your future?  Let’s shine the spotlight on this fantasy:

Summary

Miranda lives in New York City with her mom, who finds out she is going to be a contestant on The $20,000 Pyramid.  After coming home from work, her mom is focused on taking care of Miranda and practicing for the show.  Her mom’s boyfriend, Richard, and Miranda help her practice, too.

Miranda’s best friend and neighbor is Sal.  They walk home from school together each day, following the same route past an interesting man on the street they call “the laughing man.”  But one day after school, things start to change.  Sal and Miranda are walking home and out of the blue, a boy named Marcus punches Sal.  Then Sal stops talking to Miranda.  Miranda ends up meeting the boy who punched Sal at school.  She talks to him about the book she is reading, A Wrinkle in Time, and time travel.  (This will prove to be an important conversation later in the book).  

Another day after school, Miranda’s apartment is unlocked and no one is home.  Soon after that, she finds a note in her library book.  It is a mysterious note from someone who says they will save her friend’s life.  They ask for two favors – they need her to write a letter and tell where she keeps her house key.  Miranda shares the note with her mom and they have the locks changed.  

Then she gets a second note.  This note is delivered to the sandwich shop, where Miranda and her friends, Colin and Annemarie, are helping during their lunch period.  This note has more specific directions for Miranda.  They ask her to make sure her letter tells a story, but they say she can’t start writing it yet because the story she needs to tell has not taken place.  Miranda cannot make sense of the notes.  But she believes the person writing them must be onto something, because she finds another note proving the person knows about her future.  They know about something she will find in Colin’s backpack, something about Christmas Day, about her mom’s upcoming appearance on t.v. and about her science poster.  

Miranda continues to try to put clues together in her everyday life to figure out what letter she is supposed to write to the person leaving her the notes.  One day after school, she is walking home with Annemarie.  She can see Sal up ahead and she sees Marcus walking towards Sal.  Sal runs away and crosses the street.  But, he doesn’t see a delivery truck coming.  “The laughing man” ends up saving Sal’s life.  Miranda witnesses it all and her head starts spinning…she begins to put clues together to figure out who wrote the notes and how time travel plays a role in the course of events.  Then she realizes she knows the story she is supposed to tell in her letter!

Discussion

Snead pays homage to her favorite book, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle, by weaving in a discussion about its major theme and developing a plot line of time travel in this book.  This book begins with a quote from Albert Einstein (1931) “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious” and this quote sets up the mysterious events to come.  

The events in Snead’s low fantasy book seem realistic and could actually happen, except for the time travel.  This book may sound like it includes a series of strange events connected with time travel or it may sound like including the plot line of time travel would confuse the reader with abstract thinking.  However, all of the events come together at the end.  Snead does an excellent job of pulling the characters, plot lines and clues together to make for an enjoyable read.  The story builds as Snead puts all of the pieces in place.  Then, readers will fly through the final forty pages of the book as the events pull together.

Miranda serves as the narrator of the book, with her voice speaking to the person who wrote her the notes.  Readers get a glimpse into her thoughts and emotions from her doubts about the person writing the notes, to her process of unveiling the mystery.  Her conversations with her family and friends help move the story along.  Her descriptions about her surroundings prove to be important for the reader.  

Miranda is a character who perseveres throughout the book.  She never gives up on her relationships with friends, like her best friend, Sal.  She stands by her mom in her quest to be successful on the game show.  She also never gives up on figuring out the meaning behind the notes and their purpose.  She is a believable and relatable.  Her relationships with her family and friends seem true to a sixth grader’s experience.  This book could work with a male character in the role of the narrator, but it is enhanced with the placement of a female character leading the way through the fantasy.  Readers will find themselves thinking the same thoughts and asking the same questions as Miranda. 

The plot contains elements that are believable and could really happen.  Readers could be surprised by the element of fantasy, which develops later in the book.  Stead takes time to situate the story in reality, then introduces the reader to the element of fantasy.

The story takes place in Miranda’s neighborhood in New York City.  It is a small scale setting, with many of the events occurring at Miranda’s house, her school, the sandwich shop or on her walk to and from school.  Snead provides the reader with details about each location and connects the locations within the neighborhood.  Readers will be able to visualize the setting, which is helpful as Miranda pulls the mysterious events together.

The themes within this book reflect themes typically seen in other genres like negotiating relationships within ones family and developing friendships.  However, this book also includes themes related to the genre of fantasy like time travel, overcoming an obstacle and completing a task.

Overall, the strength of this book is Stead’s ability to execute a logical story with the detail of time travel.  Readers will enjoy the payoff at the end of this book as the groundwork Stead has laid comes together.

Awards/Reviews

Rebecca Stead has received many honors for When You Reach Me.  This book was a New York Times Bestseller, winner of the 2010 Newbery Medal and winner of the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award for Fiction. 

Here are samples of a few reviews for When You Reach Me:

“Discerning readers will realize the ties between Miranda's mystery and L'Engle's plot, but will enjoy hints of fantasy and descriptions of middle school dynamics. Stead's novel is as much about character as story.  Miranda's voice rings true with its faltering attempts at maturity and observation.  The story builds slowly, emerging naturally from a sturdy premise.  As Miranda reminisces, the time sequencing is somewhat challenging, but in an intriguing way.  The setting is consistently strong.  The stores and even the streets–in Miranda's neighborhood act as physical entities and impact the plot in tangible ways.  This unusual, thought-provoking mystery will appeal to several types of readers." – School Library Journal

“In this era of supersize children’s books, Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me looks positively svelte.  But don’t be deceived: In this taut novel, every word, every sentence, has meaning and substance.  A hybrid of genres, it is a complex mystery, a work of historical fiction, a school story and one of friendship, with a leitmotif of time travel running through it.  Most of all, the novel is a thrilling puzzle.  Stead piles up clues on the way to a moment of intense drama, after which it is pretty much impossible to stop reading until the last page.” – New York Times

“If this book makes your head hurt, you’re not alone.  Sixth-grader Miranda admits that the events she relates make her head hurt, too. Time travel will do that to you.  The story takes place in 1979, though time frames, as readers learn, are relative.  Miranda and Sal have been best friends since way before that.  They both live in a tired Manhattan apartment building and walk home together from school.  One day everything changes.  Sal is kicked and punched by a schoolmate and afterward barely acknowledges Miranda.  Which leaves her to make new friends, even as she continues to reread her ratty copy of A Wrinkle in Time and tutor her mother for a chance to compete on The $20,000 Pyramid.  She also ponders a puzzling, even alarming series of events that begins with a note: “I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own . . . you must write me a letter.” Miranda’s first-person narrative is the letter she is sending to the future.  Or is it the past?  It’s hard to know if the key events ultimately make sense (head hurting!), and it seems the whys, if not the hows, of a pivotal character’s actions are not truly explained.  Yet everything else is quite wonderful.  The ’70s New York setting is an honest reverberation of the era; the mental gymnastics required of readers are invigorating; and the characters, children and adults, are honest bits of humanity no matter in what place or time their souls rest.  Just as Miranda rereads L’Engle, children will return to this.” - Booklist

Teacher’s Tools

Students could also read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle to compare and contrast plot, themes and literary elements.  Both books could be used in a genre study about fantasy.  Students could read various fantasy books within Literature Circles.

Students could watch an old episode of The $20,000 Pyramid, then play the game in class with topics related to their classroom studies.

Students could discuss the Albert Einstein quote at the beginning of the book “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.”  Students could discuss what Einstein meant by his quote and how it relates to this book.  Students could create two timelines: one for the believable events in the story and one for the mysterious events, the discuss how the two connect and overlap.

Bibliographic Information

Stead, Rebecca. 2009. When You Reach Me. New York: Wendy Lamb Books. ISBN 978-0-385-73742-5.