The Perfect Score by Rob Buyea
(Delacorte Press ~ October 3, 2017)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Middle grade students in grades 4-6 will love this book, but teachers will ADORE it.
Thanks to the publisher for providing me with a review copy – all opinions are my own.
Buyea’s Mr. Terupt series is incredibly popular with my students in grades 4 – 6, and I guarantee that this title will be as well. The differing narrators provide a wide range of perspectives and enable virtually every kid to be able to relate to someone in the story due to the diversity of characters. I almost have to review this in 2 ways, though ~ once from the perspective of a middle grade reader and once as a teacher. As I already stated, middle grade readers will love the readability of the text and the nature of the story. My almost-12-year-old read this in one evening and LOVED it – she claims it’s even better than the Terupt series. That seals the kid review – no more from me on that.
As for teachers, this is one we cheer for. Standardized testing can be completely overwhelming in some districts (thankfully not mine!) and THE PERFECT SCORE exposes the inanity of the obsession on scores and performance on an arbitrary measure. The teachers are who we aspire to be in the classroom, and the students’ descriptions of Mrs. Woods make this school librarian almost weep with happiness. Teachers will rally behind this book, and I hope that it becomes an instant read aloud hit.
Highly recommended for purchase for classrooms and libraries grades 4-6. Students in grades 7 and 8 may definitely appreciate the storyline but may also shy away from reading characters definitively younger than they are. I pre-ordered 2 copies of this title – 1 for each of my libraries, middle and elementary.
I am passing my ARC of this title on to the Kid Lit Exchange network for further reviews.
View all of my Goodreads reviews
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