Title: Sorta Like A Rock Star
Category: Award Winner
Author: Matthew Quick
Publisher/Year: Little, Brown and Company / 2010
Genre: Realistic Fiction, Young Adult
Awards:
- Michigan Library Assosiation Thumbs Up! Award winner (2011)
- YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults (2011)
Pages: 368pp
Summary: Teenager Amber Appleton and her mom move from one apartment to the next depending on who her mom is dating at the time. Now they secretly sleep on the school bus that her mom drives during the day. She hangs out with 4 other misfits from school and volunteers her time throughout the week at a nursing home, a veteran's house, and a catholic church choir. She is a positive, happy girl despite her home life. Then tragedy hits and turns her world upside-down. The community, that she has loved and served for so many years, pulls together to help her in an outstanding way. It all ends in glamor and lights, sorta like a rock star.
Comments: Endearing is the word I would use for this book. The first third of the book is all background details and doesn't have a strong plot to tie it together yet. It combines so many odd things that make you wonder where the book is going to go and yet each detail you've learned in the first few chapters is so very important. When tragedy does hit Amber you practically fall flat on your face much like she must have felt. Then it is all tied in so wonderfully you wish you could have met the main character yourself! I would definitely recommend this book to girls. I think boys may be bored with it because it is so heavy relationally.
Classroom Application:
Lexile: 1030L
Age: 11-17
I'm sure you could study about the structure or plot or characters or something, but personally I would just recommends this as a fun read to my students. Just read a book, with no strings attached.
