because of mr. terupt by Rob Buyea

This novel is written in the style of an Andrew Clements book, and I gave it a rating of four out of five. The plot evolves around the fifth grade classroom of a first-year teacher named Mr. Terupt. He doesn't behave the way the kids expect a teacher to act, but they manage to learn and enjoy his class. The various characters fill the roles of students that can be found in most classrooms. Jessica is the new girl; Alexia is a mean bully; Danielle is overweight and gets picked on; Anna is shy; Luke is the smartest kid in class; Peter is the class clown. Each student challenges Mr. Terupt in various ways, but things get serious on the day of the class party. It's literally a matter of life and death. The lives of all the characters change on that fateful day.

The first half of the book established the relationships between the characters. Most students can identify with all of the issues and events that occurred throughout the story; well, most students probably haven't had the bottoms of their shoes covered with Elmer's glue. The plot moves along rather innocently until the day of the class party. Then BAM! The tone gets very serious, and the relationships really start working. A concern for some readers may be that the story is told from seven points of view, but they are divided up by chapters. This situation usually bugs me, but I still enjoyed the conflicts and resolutions.

Lexile level from lexile.com 560