The Misfits

By:  James Howe (2003)

This book is about a group of outcast friends that try to make a positive difference in their school by running for student government under the No Names Party, that hopes to outlaw name calling. The group comes up with this platform after realizing that they have all experienced this sort of discrimination and that it is a major problem at their school and can greatly stunt one's development as an individual. The book discusses controversial topics like sexual orientation, racism, name calling, and death in a way that I believe students will enjoy because of the free flowing dialogue and language used by the characters.

I enjoyed this book a lot and appreciated the many messages that it carried. I initially found the book to be a little hard to read because of the somewhat rambling narration by the main character but as I got used to it it seemed to be a nice change of pace from most of the books that I have read, because it was being told through the eyes of a 12 year old. I liked that each of the four main characters had their own distinct personality and these personalities were certainly evident during their Forum meetings that they held at their favorite restaurant. While the ending was a little predictable, I thought that the overall messages of standing up to bullying and embracing each others differences would be great themes to discuss in a classroom.

As a teacher I think that I would definitely like to have my students read this book because I think that they would be able to relate to the problems that many of the characters are having and would enjoy the style in which this book is written. Because of some of the content covered in the book and some of the words that are used I think that it would be important to give both students and parents an introduction to the book, the sensitive topics that are covered in it, and why you feel this book is a good way to discuss these topics. I feel that some of the topics, like sexual orientation, could be uncomfortable to discuss in class and I think that this book would be helpful resource for both teachers and students. When reading this book I think that I would discuss each chapter as it was read so that students could discuss what was read and relate it to similar experiences they may be having in their own lives. Finally, I think that this book may lend itself to some social activism projects that students could get involved in in their community or school, following in the footsteps of the characters in this book.