It's a rare thing for me to find a book that I literally cannot put down. But that is exactly what happened when I checked out from my library GARVEY'S CHOICE. This middle-grade novel-in-verse begs for you to turn the page. For one thing, the words are spun absolutely beautiful. They are sparse, yet packed with emotion. They are simple yet profound. They are placed on the stream of a heartfelt story like stones across a bubbling brook. You simply can't help but to skip across.
Another thing that kept me reading is that I had an immediate connection with Garvey, a young man who struggles to find acceptance at school, at home, and within himself. The main reason, however, I read GARVEY'S CHOICE in one sitting is that I just had to find out how things would turn out for Garvey. I had to see him through to the end.
Another thing that kept me reading is that I had an immediate connection with Garvey, a young man who struggles to find acceptance at school, at home, and within himself. The main reason, however, I read GARVEY'S CHOICE in one sitting is that I just had to find out how things would turn out for Garvey. I had to see him through to the end.
In between big bites, I hum to the jazz playing on the radio, the melody soothing me wherever words left splinters.
It's no wonder GARVEY's CHOICE, written by an amazing poet and an award-winning author, Nikki Grimes, and published in October 2016 by Wordsong, an imprint of Boyd's Mill's Press, has garnered so much literary praise, being chosen as a Kirkus Review Best Book of the Year, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, and a ALA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, among many others.
While GARVEY'S CHOICE is a timeless book for all ages, it is a perfect book for middle-grade readers, for the issues Garvey faces are those many younger teens of today face, too. Like Garvey, they may suffer from a lack of self-worth and use food to compensate. Like Garvey's father who would rather find his son on a basketball court than with his nose inside a book, their parents may unwittingly make them feel like they can never measure up. And like Garvey, they may find that being the popular kid in school may not ever be their reality.
But young ones who read this book will come to appreciate as Garvey did that one or two genuine friends, especially the kind who cheer you on, are better than a hundred superficial ones, and that standing up for yourself and believing in yourself is something within everyone's reach.
While GARVEY'S CHOICE is a timeless book for all ages, it is a perfect book for middle-grade readers, for the issues Garvey faces are those many younger teens of today face, too. Like Garvey, they may suffer from a lack of self-worth and use food to compensate. Like Garvey's father who would rather find his son on a basketball court than with his nose inside a book, their parents may unwittingly make them feel like they can never measure up. And like Garvey, they may find that being the popular kid in school may not ever be their reality.
But young ones who read this book will come to appreciate as Garvey did that one or two genuine friends, especially the kind who cheer you on, are better than a hundred superficial ones, and that standing up for yourself and believing in yourself is something within everyone's reach.
