Contemporary Realism

Roll with It by Jamie Sumner is about Ellie Cowan a middle school girl with cerebral palsy and her journey moving to a new town. Sumner develops Ellie's character so that she is relatable to the intended audience of nine to twelve year-olds. She loves to play miniature golf and baking. Ellie uses a wheelchair causing her to see herself as different from the other students at school, and therefore, struggles with feeling like she belongs with her peers. Everyone has felt "othered" or like they don't belong to the group, therefore, readers will empathize with Ellie and her friends Coralee and Bert who all live in the trailer park. 

The plot is chronological, engaging, and logical so that kids can easily follow the storyline. Readers will stay engaged with the book because they will want to find out if Ellie and her friends will convince Alice (Ellie's mom) to stay in Oklahoma. The chapters are interspersed with letters Ellie writes to famous bakers and her uninvolved father, which gives the book a conversational style that is easy to read. Overall, the story is a typical middle school story of belonging, but the author puts a fresh spin on the story by giving the protagonist a disability. 

Sumner, J. (2019). Roll with It. Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Jude is a middle school girl who is forced to flee her volatile homeland of Syria with her mother. Jude and her mother leave behind Issa (Jude's brother) and Baba for a new home with family in Cincinnati. She feels very sad to leave her family and friends behind for the strange land called America. However, Jude learns English, meets new friends, and even lands a role in the school musical. "The next scenes go by and it is almost my moment, almost my time to step out on stage to be seen" (p. 332). She wants to be seen by others for who she is as a human being not as a Middle Easterner.

Jude encounters racism while walking home from school one day and wearing a hijab. A random stranger follower hers and shouts, "Go back to where you came from. We don't want you here" (p. 263). She calmly walks away and wishes the man would not fear or hate her. Despite some of this ugliness, overall the tone of the book is positive and light. Part of the lightness comes from Warga's decision to write the book in verse including the following: "We are okay with still learning our lines because we are liking the script--maybe, just maybe, we have both finally found roles that make sense to us. Roles were we feel seen as we truly are" (p. 324). Jude and her brother have found things they are passionate about and are happy to be on the paths that they are on in their lives which makes for a refreshing conclusion to the book.

Warga, J. (2019). Other Words for Home. Harper Collins.