HOW TO SURVIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL - BOOK REVIEW BY ME

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TITLE: HOW TO SURVIVE MIDDLE SCHOOL

AUTHOR : Donna Gephart

SETTINGS:

PENNYSLVANIA

CHARACTERS

David Todd Greenburg – an ordinary 12 year old kid who wanted to be a tv show host someday

Elliot  - best friend of David

Lindsey – older sister of David

Sophie – New found Best friend of David

Tommy – the school bully who watch Dora the explorer

        David’s Dad – a writer of the crossword puzzle in a newspaper

PLOT

In How to Survive Middle School, the main character, David Greenberg, is just beginning middle school. He loses his best friend, Elliot, because Elliot goes girl crazy. He's so focused on girls that he doesn't pay attention to David any more, he just uses David because David's dad will drive them to the mall, where Elliot can try to find girls. 
David makes a new friend, a girl named Sophie. For awhile, Sophie is his only friend. She's really smart. She was homeschooled for awhile, so she's really advanced and she takes her projects really seriously. When David and Sophie work together on a project on Albert Einstein, they have a great time working together. 

I really liked this book because it's kind of sweet. At the beginning, David has a hard time, but after awhile, thins go well for David. He makes internet videos where he takes pictures of famous people, and pretends he's interviewing them. He also makes funny videos about his pet hamster, Hammy. Thanks to Sophie the videos become really popular. She posts them on her homeschool website, and David becomes sort of famous. He gets to meet his hero, John Stewart from the Daily Show. 

By the end of the story, Elliot realizes that the new guy he's hanging out with is bad news, and he and David become best friends again.
I related to this book because I'll be starting middle school really soon, and I can already see some friendships changing. It's important to find friends you can count on, and who like you for who you are.

I think the theme of the story is, follow your real interests and look for friends that you can count on. Also, if your friends start doing things that they don't normally do, remember that it might just be for awhile. They may come back and want to be friends again.

SUMMARY

This is a story about David Todd Greenburg a 6th  grade incoming 7th grade and his experiences coming to middle school.  David and Elliot are best of friends in their elementary grades.  They are about to enter the middle school in their summer together david and Elliot are always hangin out in the mall to see a girl who wrote in Elliot’s annual with purple hearts.  He though that Carla liked him but the fact that all of the annuals that she wrote even on Davit, it all has purple hearts.

David was a funny kid who’s hobby is to make a funny video implying himself as a television host with his hamster who was given to him by his mom. He had many videos posted in youtube that were not so famous.

The first day to middle school was not so fun for David he was wearing a t-shirt which is not required.  That what he thought when his dad buy him collar shirts.  Elliot tricked him to wear tshirt in school and now Elliot is not his bestfriend anymore.  David felt all alone in the 7^th grade he was eating all alone in the cafeteria and even walk to and fro in the classrooms by himself.  He was suspended for one day because of fighting with Elliot and Tommy.

Tommy always call on David.  He is always picking on David and calling him Lameberg.  David was upset because on his first day in middle school he was suspended, he was caught in a fight and loss his best friend.

David made a new video and posted it in youtube there are comments that are positive and he thought he was like his favorite host.  He likes a TV show host whose name is Jon Stewart. He also really wants to have a TV show like him. So he makes videos with his friend Elliot anh hamster Hammy on YouTude. Eliot and David argee about a girl signing Elliot's year book with two hearts. Then they stop hanging out with each other. Instead Elliot decides to hang out with an other kid named Tommy. Tommy is known to be the meanest kid in middle school. And so know Elliot starts being mean to David too.

He’s not too worried until his older cousin Jack tells him about the horrors he may face, including a toilet-bowl swirlie on his birthday. David has other worries on his mind too: his mom left the family to live on a farm in Maine that has no electricity or phone service, his best friend Elliott no longer speaks to him, and his older sister Lindsay is hostile a lot of the time. The only good thing he has going is his grandmother, Bubbe, the TalkTime videos he records and posts on YouTube, and his pet hamster.

Things start to look up when he meets Sophie on his first day of school. Sophie is just starting public school after being taught at home by her mom, and she loves David’s videos. When she spreads the word about TalkTime through her homeschool network, David’s videos suddenly become way more popular than he is, leading to consequences both good and bad.

How to Survive Middle School by Donna Gephart is a funny and poignant look at a trying time of life for most adolescents. The comforts of elementary school are gone, some kids are maturing way faster than others, teachers are stricter, and new friendships are forming while old ones may be falling away. Bullies may be more of a problem. Gephart does a great job of showing how conflicted David feels about so much going on around him. 

REACTION

Heartwarming story of a smart, endearing, but scared new sixth grader who finds he's a smash with his creative videos on You Tube, but a failure at fitting in at middle school. The brother-sister relationship between David and his older sister with the ribbing but concern rings absolutely true and is touching. David's realization that Internet fame doesn't fill the void missing in his day-to-day life is powerful. The loss of his pet hamster and his tortured feelings for the mother who left him provide a roller coaster of emotion. The aftermath of the fight with his best friend, is a deft exploration of growing up, fitting in, and friendship.

David's portrayed as a wimp who's scared to death of being bullied before school starts after hearing stories from his cousin. But on the first day of school, he gets into his first physical fight with his best friend and seems to come out on top. That should have given him a little more confidence in dealing with the school bully--even if the bully was bigger than him. Because not only is David a super smart kid, his bully is dumb as rocks. The author went to great pains to show that David is a rule follower and after getting punished for that school fight didn't want to get into any more trouble, but the tortures he endures, without lifting a finger to help himself or talk to any adult about his problems, strain credibility. It would have been more realistic for him to make inadequate attempts to stand up for himself that backfire.

This book was written not only for the middle school students but also for high school students because it’s mostly focusing on about bullying which is a common idea to see in high school and middle school. The possible themes of the books are about bullies and sticking up for what you believe in and don’t let anyone strike you down for who you are. The book was actually great and I loved the comparison of David Greenburg’s mother and how he misses her since she was not there to help him through middle school. I would recommend this book to anyone that is being bullied so they can see the huge idea that they can stand up for who they are and to stand up for their own ground and not let anyone stopping you from being who you are that makes yourself a person. Not only would I recommend it to anyone that is being bullied I would recommend this book to the innocent bystanders so they know that just standing there and doing nothing to help the victim is just a cruel wrong act and that they should step up and help fight off against bullying. While this is not all about bullying but is also shows some details about having relationships in middle school. Having relationships in middle school can press a load of pressure and sometimes can lead to depression and this is middle school, so one should if they can to live through their life in middle school so they can get to high school and the rewards will be outstanding. The approach the book contributes to I, the reader and others is the intelligence it relates between all the on ideas of middle school and high school like bullying, relationships, work ethic, and peer pressure are powerful however, the people we are ourselves can stop the stress in life for once and make a difference in change. The great approach the book contributes to the widespread readers is the actuality that your friend is the possibility of not being who they say are and could potentially be the person out to devastate others so not only should someone make friends but they should watch their backs and know who is really their friends so the possibility of a great mistake will be reduced.

-back to being a kid, reading books is my hobby... some paragraphs are credited from other comments but most - 98% to be exact - of it are written by me.