Smackdown Books 2021

Ordinary Hazards
We Dream of Space
If These Wings Could Fly
We Are Not Free
The King of Jam Sandwiches
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team
The Companion
Punching the Air
Show Me a Sign
Land of the Cranes
Furia
Dragon Hoops
When Stars Are Scattered
Snapdragon
The Radium Girls: The Scary But True Story of the Poison That Made People Glow in the Dark
American as Paneer Pie
Tune It Out
The Gilded Ones
The Left-Handed Booksellers of London
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Sunday, March 1, 2020

Saturday Shame . . . and we like Mason Buttle Better






I am no stranger to a missed deadline, but on an enjoyably quiet Saturday when I actually spent an hour just reading (!!) I was started out of the last pages of my book (Digression: Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys is great)by the realization that  I had totally forgot to blog. So, here it is and it will be sheepishly (and uncharacteristically) brief.

This wasn’t all that much of a contest for us. We all really loved The Truth as Told By Mason Buttle and we were all pretty lukewarm on Good Enough. My own experience reading Good Enough was oddly clinical given how raw the emotions were and how deeply personal that subject terrain was for the author. I felt like I learned a lot about both the pathology and the humanity of eating disorders, but I kind of felt myself learning rather than being truly immersed in the narrative. That may be my failing as a reader, however, and I will note that the one grade nine student – the now famous Daniel Luu – who reads all of the Smackdown books with us, really liked Good Enough and felt it was a slam dunk over Mason Buttle, which he felt was for a younger audience.

Perhaps not too surprisingly, all of us olds disagreed.  We thought this was a book that would have a place in your upper elementary class library, but you may also bring to your non educator friends and find it getting into their hearts a bit too. As for Mason Buttle himself, well, we just flat out loved that kid, and I think that is because he is an amalgam of all of those things we love in the cast and crew of misfits in each of our long careers who may not have always been rays of sunshine, but who we get out of bed every day for regardless. Now, Mason is, indeed, a ray of sunshine, and I think that what I realized as I read the book is that the essence of the educational endeavor is to see the Mason – the innate kindness, the diligence, the need for connection – in even those kids who can’t see those traits in themselves. When I finished the novel, the kid who lingered with me, was not Mason, but Matt. Hurt kids, hurt kids.  This kid does serious damage, even with some strong supports in place. He’s going to need more through every step of his life, but he’s still just a little boy too. I suppose this brings us to the other reason why we loved this book. Its portrayal of adults and the role they play in shaping the inherently misshapen is ultimately one of hope. Nobody’s perfect, of course, but what we see are the adults doing the best they can and ultimately being guided by care and compassion. We found this an inspiring book and it is our choice to move on in the Smackdown.