Misfits By James Howe Views
The first time I read this book, it was 3 years ago in the sixth grade. I saw it again at the library last week, and read it again, remebering I liked it. But The Misfits just seemed juvenille now. It seems like James Howe just guessed what middle school was like. I mean campaigning about name caliing? Come on. And what kind of 7th grader admits they are gay? Let alone TWO 7th graders, it just...
James Howe is the author of over eighty books for young readers, including the modern classic Bunnicula and its highly popular sequels. In 2001, Howe published The Misfits, the story of four outcast seventh-graders who try to end name-calling in their school. The Misfits is now widely read and studied in middle schools throughout the country, and was the inspiration for the national movement known as No Name-Calling Week , an event observed by thousands of middle and elementary schools annually. Totally Joe, a companion novel to The Misfits, was published in 2005, and a second companion novel, Addie on the Inside, is being published in 2011. Howetrs"s many other books for children from preschool through teens frequently deal with the acceptance of difference and being true to oneself.
Humor is the most precious gift I can give to my reader, James Howe once noted in Horn Book. Best known for the laugh-out-loud tales of vampire bunnies and talking pets that comprise his Bunnicula books, Howe is also the author of sometimes painfully funny coming-of-age stories for middle graders. He also serves up stories of close friendship in his Pinky and Rex chapter books and spins a mystery with an often-humorous twist in his Sebastian Barth tales. In addition to also penning picture books and novels, Howe moved into more serious territory with his 1997 novel, The Watcher, which focuses on child abuse, and has even courted controversy by dealing with teen homosexuality in his 2001 novel The Misfits. In addition, he has collected writings by a number of popular authors into anthologies such as The Color of Absence: Twelve Stories about Loss and Hope and 13: Thirteen Stories That Capture the Agony and Ecstasy of Being Thirteen, which directly address the realities of adolescence.
Howe takes a different approach with his novels for older readers, such as The Watcher and The Misfits. A somber, ambitious novel (about child abuse), according to Stephanie Zvirin in Booklist, The Watcher employs three different narrative viewpoints as Howe tells the story of a solitary teen whose best friend at an island beach resort seems to be her notebook. Called the Watcher by others at the beach due to her habit of watching nearby the families and seemingly recording her impressions in a notebook, the young girl, Margaret, focuses on one family in particular, weaving herself fancifully into their lives. Other narrative viewpoints come from Evan, who is afraid his parents are divorcing, and the lifeguard Chris, who is trying to find his place with his family and the world.
Misfits By James Howe Images
