Carol GormanCritiques

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For my book review, visit my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/C6BaldHWht8

Enjoy!½

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This informative gem, from the 80's, proves that satanic forces are having a field day and that the American Citizenry has pitifully dropped the ball on the issue of protecting our women & children. As predicted, porn has proliferated our society in mass scale, shattering the lives of many of the most helpless amongst us. Sad.

First, the bad. The theme of a nerdy 6th-grade kid trying to pass as cool has been done. And the details of setting put this in a very narrow cultural era that readers will not remember - kids send emails to each other, but real newspapers are still delivered door-to-door to most addresses in a neighborhood.

But the good is that Gorman has a deft touch and adds interesting details; the story is free of most cliches. It's lively, plausible, and I liked it a lot. I think kids would, too.

It took awhile for this story to take off for me, in part because I did not find the boys' personalities distinctive enough to remember whose voice was narrating a given chapter. Fans of books told in alternating perspectives (a la "Flipped") may enjoy this one.

Mick and Boot are sworn enemies for as long as they can remember. For
some reason they just can't stand each other. It's only September 8th
and they have had two fights at school already. Instead of suspending
them again,the new principal requires them to come in during class and
lunch and play board games. Relations continue to be prickly and the
animosity climaxes in a game of dare in front of their classmates. Mick's
dare is to splash red paint on the public library, his beloved hangout,
and Boot's dare is to shoplift an instrument from a music store run by
his closest friend. In alternating chapters (Mick's Turn, Boot's Turn)
we see their differing perspectives on the situation and how their
troubled home lives impact them. As the boys get to know each other, a sort of truce takes place

Cute middle school book about a boy who tries to reinvent his image into someone cool and struggles with how to keep up with his interests (science and other things he fears the cool kids will think are dorky) while still appearing cool to the girl whose looks he admires. In the end, he discovers he has more fun with the people who share his interests than he does with those he needs to pretend with.

I liked that the main character stood up for the girl who had first befriended him when the popular girl called her a nerd. I also like that the author shows that it's hard to keep track of the lies you have to tell when you try to be someone you're not, and that being true to yourself doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up alone.

I don't like that the main character told so many lies to appear cool. I don't like that the cool girl was using the main character to make another guy jealous--at the same time leading on the main character to think that they might have something together--though it could be that the main character was just too besotted or too naive to see the writing on the wall.

I like that in the end, the main character shocked the cool kids by choosing to hang out with the smart kids.

I enjoyed reading this book because it made me think about when I was in school and how it felt to not feel 'cool'. As I read the book I thought about how things have changed. Wearing glasses you always felt like a geek and now glasses are more stylish.

Jerry wants to be cook and not a geek so he studies being a cool guy during the summer. He is in a new school and wants to be cool.

Heavy, realistic. Told in alternating chapters by the boys who are forced to play Games. Dysfunctional families.

Mick Sullivan and Boot Quinn have been enemies for quite some time, and now they have a new principal who believes in solving problems differently. Thus, for two periods a day, they must come to the office, and sit in a room together and play board games until they can figure out how to get along. At first, it makes them angrier, and they challenge each other to a series of dares based on the things that are most important to each of them. They also both have a crush on Tabitha, who is secretly taking bets on how their daily games and dares will turn out. Both boys have issues at home: Mick is a constant disappointment to his dad since he doesn't like sports, and motherless Boot is often knocked around by his father and older brother. Told from both Mick's and Boot's point of view, the story is realistic and interesting, with great characters.

Charlie Nebraska lives with his mom in a small town in Iowa after his dad dies in the Korean War. Charlie meets a new face in town, Luther, who happens to be the only black man in their town. Luther sees Charlie practicing for baseball tryouts and gives him some pointers. After getting to talk to Luther, Charlie learns that Luther was on a team on the Negro League, but had to leave Tennessee after an incident that occurred while he played ball. Charlie learns the true feelings of people in his town toward African Americans.½

Dork in Disguise by Carol Gorman- Jerry has always been a dork, so when he starts a new school he decides that he wants to be the cool kid. On the first day of school he meets a girl named Brenda who helps him with his “coolness”. He also meets a girl named Cinnamon who he develops a crush on. Jerry eventually realizes that he is much more comfortable just being himself.
I really liked the message about just being yourself. I think this is something students can relate to. We have probably all wished we were someone else at one time or another.
I got this idea from the book Speak. Before reading Dork in Disguise I would have the students decorate their own little paper sacks and I would hang them in my room. The sacks are for positive notes about classmates. I think that receiving anonymous positive notes from classmates would be a good boost.

This book is about a two boys who have hated each other for almost all their life. They get into a fight and the new principal makes them play games until they can get along. They find out new things about each other and make new discoveries. This book is a good book and i suggest everone to read.

Mick Sullivan and Boot Quinn have been enemies since the day they first met. They have had countless fist fights and have already been suspended once in the first month of their eighth grade year. Mick Sullivan is big for his age which make people think he likes to fight way more than he does. Actually, Mick likes to read more than anything else. He considers the library his second home. Mick's father is constantly trying to get him to be tougher and get him involved in sports, but Mick just doesn't enjoy them. Boot doesn't have many friends. He likes to play the guitar and wants to someday be in a band. His biggest goal for the day is to give Mick a hard time by teasing him about his father who has a drinking problem. Both boys have difficult home lives that they really keep hidden from everyone else. They also like Tabitha Slater, the most popular girl in the eighth grade. Things start to change when a new principal comes to the school. After their latest fight, instead of suspending them again, he assigns the boys to come to the office to play games for an hour every day. This extra time together, without adult supervision, leads to some heated exchanges and ultimately some extremely devastating consequences for both Mick and Boot. While cooperation and civility don't happen in the traditional sense, they do start to learn about each other. Carol Gorman, the author of the Dork in Disguise series, takes us on the emotional rollercoaster of middle school where what your friends think is what drives the majority of your decisions and with most people there is more than meets the eye.

I have like nothing to say about this book. It was just... there. It was predictable and moved very slowly. The characters were okay, but really the book was not too impressive.

Dork in disguise is a great book and the dork has a crush on one of the populur girl and he writes songs for her and she loves them and asked him to the carnival and he doesnt really now what to do and to say...

anything with cats is good

Two boys are always fighting at school and the new principal orders them to play board games together everyday for an hour or so at school until they can learn to get along. Both boys have quite a lot going on a home and gradually learn to trust each other through this exercise. Meanwhile the hottest girl in school starts befriending each boy, yet is unbeknownst to them, benefitting from betting on who will win their next fight. I have to admit I turned the pages pretty quickly, especially when the boys dared each other to do something extreme.½

Two boys who can't stop provoking each other are forced by their new principal to play games with each other each day during an in-school suspension. The forced time together breaks down barriers between the boys and they become, if not friends, at least, no longer enemies.

Will have some appeal to boys and game players. Tension in the story is mild and could have been stronger to draw the reader in more toward the stories of the two boys and their very similar families.

Convinced that the fatal accident she witnessed at the basketball game was not accidental, thirteen-year-old Chelsey, a paraplegic, and her unusual friend Jack join forces to prove it was a deliberate murder.