Was middle school the worst years of my life? Compared to all the other years, socially maybe it was. Compared to other people, it may have not been so bad. All I know is I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible and not have to look back.
When it comes to Rafe Khatchadorian, in Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson, he had a pretty interesting year; a creative one to say the least. During the first quarter of the book I wasn’t impressed though. It screamed to me “I’m trying to be like Diary of a Wimpy Kid!” There’s text, there’s drawings, there’s a kid talking about his sixth grade experience. The first offense is his “friend” Leo. Leo reminded me of Greg he was sort of an instigator in Rafe’s life. Leo would push Rafe to do things that Leo would never do in his own life. Until later in the book when we learn Rafe’s secret and Leo doesn’t seem to be so much of an instigator anymore.
When Jeanne Galletta was brought into the picture I was seriously thinking about whether or not Patterson read the “Diary” books before hand and knew it would be a good story line that was missing from the other series. Boys and girls do begin to lust over each other around this time. Weird crushes also begin to form and everyone gets nervous and can’t talk around each other. Or like Rafe, some just say too much because of nerves.
Some where along the line the book gained substance and I stopped thinking about “Diary” so much. This novel had its own way of wrapping its fingers around my imagination.
There is a great story line though that helps to give the book substance, something that I found to be missing in “Diary”. Patterson’s novel has a clear plot instead of just writing about different days that have a certain “greater” theme.
I’m a bit jealous that Rafe figured out a way to make school into a real life video game. If school was really like this every aspect of school would be more fun; it’s almost like a reward program. I’m willing to bet that more kids are afraid to fail, or loose a life, during a video game. Most kids take school for granted much like Rafe did when it final came to his attention that he was about to fail the sixth grade. He almost woke up and got his act together but he didn’t. His real life video game began to over power him.
The novel also deals with real life issues such as acceptance and home problems. During the first few pages Rafe wonders if he can trust the audience and even asks us if he can. He calls his life nutty and this is why he can’t trust people. As the book moves along his life if pretty nutty but as an outsider I accept him and understand to the best of my ability. It’s much harder for Rafe to accept himself and realize that others will want to be his friend despite his life experience. But for Rafe and many other middle schoolers trust does become a huge issue as well as being accepted and not being made fun of or ostracized. By Rafe saying this to his audience he is definitely wrapping his audience in because Rafe’s life, even though in a book, does make the novel relatable. This is something kids, teens, as well as adults need to feel with just about anything. We all need to be able to relate different things to our own experiences so we can at least try to understand. At the end of the day, Rafe never really does fit in which is a good thing. Rafe even questions if we’ll like him for him. When he finally does revel his true appearance on page six he questions if we still want to be his friend. After all through out much of life we are judged based on our appearance.
In the category of family troubles Rafe encounters Bear, his soon to be stepfather, everyday after school. In my eyes Bear is one of those men who’s a leech, feeding off of a woman while he does nothing and thinks he controls the house. Even though Rafe’s mom, Jules, was conscious of her children’s feelings when Bear was about to move in she didn’t fully take these feelings into consideration. She got caught up with having a man in her life and dealing with children. Unfortunately this situation, or one similar to it, is a scenario many children face every day. Even though Bear is not as bad as some men I was certainly glad Patterson made a positive impact by making Jules finally see what this man was worth. Children can’t change their parent’s decision but maybe some day as an adult this plot in the book will have an effect on someone in this situation.
Lies, something else every kid and adult goes through. We lie to hide things about our selves for protection. So people won’t find out the truth. Rafe tends to lie quite a bit just to keep himself out of trouble. We’ve all been there though so no judgment passed. I do believe Rafe sums it up best as why we lie to anyone, not just our parents.
“The thing is, I don’t like to lie to Mom. I mean, I’ll do it if I have to, but she has enough to deal with.” (page 53)
When it comes to Leo I didn’t see anything fishy until page 80 when Jules asks Rafe if he had been seeing Leo lately. At first I thought “Oh no! Leo must have been a friend who died and Rafe is living life over again by seeing Leo all the time.” Then I was relieved when he turned out to just be an imaginary friend. Even I still have my imaginary friends from time to time, nothing weird in that. Then in the end it’s revealed that Leo was his twin brother who died. That was definitely a pretty good twist. It helped bind everything together and it was a suspenseful gasp sort of cliff hanger.
Rafe to me is a hero. Even though he doesn’t think the school rules are fair he doesn’t exactly try to change them in the best way. Everyone has to agree though, he refused to be normal. This term is something most of us try to fit into. Is the word normal something that can be tried to be fitted?
When it comes to Rafe Khatchadorian, in Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life by James Patterson, he had a pretty interesting year; a creative one to say the least. During the first quarter of the book I wasn’t impressed though. It screamed to me “I’m trying to be like Diary of a Wimpy Kid!” There’s text, there’s drawings, there’s a kid talking about his sixth grade experience. The first offense is his “friend” Leo. Leo reminded me of Greg he was sort of an instigator in Rafe’s life. Leo would push Rafe to do things that Leo would never do in his own life. Until later in the book when we learn Rafe’s secret and Leo doesn’t seem to be so much of an instigator anymore.
When Jeanne Galletta was brought into the picture I was seriously thinking about whether or not Patterson read the “Diary” books before hand and knew it would be a good story line that was missing from the other series. Boys and girls do begin to lust over each other around this time. Weird crushes also begin to form and everyone gets nervous and can’t talk around each other. Or like Rafe, some just say too much because of nerves.
Some where along the line the book gained substance and I stopped thinking about “Diary” so much. This novel had its own way of wrapping its fingers around my imagination.
There is a great story line though that helps to give the book substance, something that I found to be missing in “Diary”. Patterson’s novel has a clear plot instead of just writing about different days that have a certain “greater” theme.
I’m a bit jealous that Rafe figured out a way to make school into a real life video game. If school was really like this every aspect of school would be more fun; it’s almost like a reward program. I’m willing to bet that more kids are afraid to fail, or loose a life, during a video game. Most kids take school for granted much like Rafe did when it final came to his attention that he was about to fail the sixth grade. He almost woke up and got his act together but he didn’t. His real life video game began to over power him.
The novel also deals with real life issues such as acceptance and home problems. During the first few pages Rafe wonders if he can trust the audience and even asks us if he can. He calls his life nutty and this is why he can’t trust people. As the book moves along his life if pretty nutty but as an outsider I accept him and understand to the best of my ability. It’s much harder for Rafe to accept himself and realize that others will want to be his friend despite his life experience. But for Rafe and many other middle schoolers trust does become a huge issue as well as being accepted and not being made fun of or ostracized. By Rafe saying this to his audience he is definitely wrapping his audience in because Rafe’s life, even though in a book, does make the novel relatable. This is something kids, teens, as well as adults need to feel with just about anything. We all need to be able to relate different things to our own experiences so we can at least try to understand. At the end of the day, Rafe never really does fit in which is a good thing. Rafe even questions if we’ll like him for him. When he finally does revel his true appearance on page six he questions if we still want to be his friend. After all through out much of life we are judged based on our appearance.
In the category of family troubles Rafe encounters Bear, his soon to be stepfather, everyday after school. In my eyes Bear is one of those men who’s a leech, feeding off of a woman while he does nothing and thinks he controls the house. Even though Rafe’s mom, Jules, was conscious of her children’s feelings when Bear was about to move in she didn’t fully take these feelings into consideration. She got caught up with having a man in her life and dealing with children. Unfortunately this situation, or one similar to it, is a scenario many children face every day. Even though Bear is not as bad as some men I was certainly glad Patterson made a positive impact by making Jules finally see what this man was worth. Children can’t change their parent’s decision but maybe some day as an adult this plot in the book will have an effect on someone in this situation.
Lies, something else every kid and adult goes through. We lie to hide things about our selves for protection. So people won’t find out the truth. Rafe tends to lie quite a bit just to keep himself out of trouble. We’ve all been there though so no judgment passed. I do believe Rafe sums it up best as why we lie to anyone, not just our parents.
“The thing is, I don’t like to lie to Mom. I mean, I’ll do it if I have to, but she has enough to deal with.” (page 53)
When it comes to Leo I didn’t see anything fishy until page 80 when Jules asks Rafe if he had been seeing Leo lately. At first I thought “Oh no! Leo must have been a friend who died and Rafe is living life over again by seeing Leo all the time.” Then I was relieved when he turned out to just be an imaginary friend. Even I still have my imaginary friends from time to time, nothing weird in that. Then in the end it’s revealed that Leo was his twin brother who died. That was definitely a pretty good twist. It helped bind everything together and it was a suspenseful gasp sort of cliff hanger.
Rafe to me is a hero. Even though he doesn’t think the school rules are fair he doesn’t exactly try to change them in the best way. Everyone has to agree though, he refused to be normal. This term is something most of us try to fit into. Is the word normal something that can be tried to be fitted?