Mockingbird-Erskine

This is a great book about compassion and acceptance.  Caitlin has just lost her brother due to a school shooting and she is having a hard time "Dealing With It".  She as Asperger's and her school counselor is trying to assist Caitlin with finding "Closure".  The story is beautifully told from Caitlin's perspective so the reader really gets a better understanding Asperger's and how to have empathy for others.

Scrawl- Shulman

Tod Munn is a bully.  He shakes down kids for their lunch money, breaks kids glasses because he can.  His home life is pretty messed up but no worse than his friends.  Tod and his droogs (as he calls them) have been busted for doing something bad.  Really bad.  The other two have to serve time after school each day picking up trash around the school grounds.  Tod has been assigned after-school detentions in a hot, empty room with the guidance counselor.  He has to write his story in a beat up journal. 

The book is written in a journal format which lets us view the world through Tod's eyes.  We learn a lot about him.  We learn that he is really smarter than he would ever let anyone of his peers know.  We learn that he can be compassionate, that he has his own moral compass which he tries to follow.  The author does a great job of peeling back the layers of Tod's character slowly so we as readers can truely appreciate his main character.