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.
