Starting off the year with a book club book! We read this for Middle Grade Book Club and I am glad that we did! 

We start off this book with a brief introduction to our two main characters, Red and Rip, and are then introduced to their new Language Arts teacher, Mr. Acevedo. Mr. Acevedo is fresh out of college and has a lot of thoughts about how to best instruct students--no tests, no test prep, and a whole lot of teamwork. At first, his teaching style was a bit off-putting to how I imagine a 5th-grade Lindsey would have handled her first-day jitters. However, his teaching methods prove successful as the students not only use what they learned to ace a mandated state test, they also gain some fantastic social skills like healthy ways to deal with change, working with difficult individuals, and more. 

I have to say that some of the characterizations, most notably Avery, seemed a bit unrealistic. Someone so offputting to her classmates (or maybe just Rip?) seemed a bit out of pocket for someone who has attended school there her whole life. 

I like how the author integrated some potentially unknown words, idioms, and sayings/proverbs into the book. Red, one of the main characters, is autistic and he has some difficulties understanding certain phrases, and oftentimes an adult or friend will explain it. 

While this was by no means one of my favorite middle-grade novels I have read, I would definitely read the next one in the series.