Description
The Weirder the Better by Stasia Decker-Ahmed
ISBN 978-0930773977
When Jamie Smyth starts Lark Middle School—her tenth school in seven years—she convinces herself that this year is going to be different. Instead of being just another face in the crowd, she starts a club, one to which only the most unusual kids need apply. Soon several eccentric students join Jamie’s exclusive club. Brandon has a glass eye. Justice lives in a bomb shelter. One kid is a refugee from North Korea. Another is a boy with twelve toes. Yet another is a girl who eats only cereal and M&M’s. Jamie believes that she finally fits in. But as her club becomes more popular, Jamie begins to encounter resistance from certain students as well as certain school officials, and Jamie realizes that she may have to pay a price for her boldness.
Reviews
“When Jamie carves out her own niche in the social hierarchy, she makes quite a splash.
Jamie isn’t looking forward to starting the sixth grade at her 10th school since kindergarten (her 11th if you count the two days she spent at Magley Wood Elementary before she was expelled). Her mother swears that this time they’ll stay in one place long enough for her to make friends. “Be whatever you want to be!” her grandmother says in a rare lucid moment. Confronted with school clubs populated by mean, popular girls, Jamie forms her own club: The Outcasts, for kids “the weirder the better.” The club members have quirks aplenty: a glass eye, 12 toes, nine body piercings. One member has four mothers and three fathers, while another escaped her homeland as a refugee. Club outings are sweetly kooky, ranging from a private showing of demolition-derby practice to an afternoon volunteering at a shelter. Their popularity grows, and the Outcasts turn away many would-be weirdos (sadly, without ever examining the hypocrisy of being outcasts who exclude perfectly nice classmates for being “just average, regular kids”). The principal, cartoonishly mean, seethes at this disruption of the social order, and demands the Outcasts disband.
Quirky kids make their own fun in what would make a delightful afterschool special.”
—Kirkus Reviews, June 1, 2011
“The Weirder the Better is an offering from Seattle’s Black Heron Press, written by first-time author Stasia Decker-Ahmed and suggested for readers 9 and up. Decker-Ahmed, a teacher, sets this book in a world she knows well—school.
Protagonist Jamie Smyth has just started middle school—her 10th school in seven years. A survivor of a fire when she was little, Jamie has dramatic burn scars on her arms, and she has always been an outsider.
At the start of this new school year, she is determined to figure out a way to fit in. She does it by starting a club called The Outcasts, and inviting kids who don’t fit into traditional school cliques to band together. But as the club gains in visibility and popularity, school officials challenge the club’s right to exist.
Decker-Ahmed creates some interesting characters in the kids who join The Outcasts and provides an empowering message about self-esteem. But the resistance Jamie faces from school authorities is painted in broad brush strokes. I think readers could have handled—and benefited from—a more nuanced portrait of the opposition. ”
—Barbara McMichael, Kitsap Sun, October 26, 2011
“Stasia Decker-Ahmed touches on things that make some children different from the mainstream and, while acknowledging how they may affect a child’s fragile self-esteem, turns them into points of pride an strength. The Weirder the better is a powerful, delightful read for all ages, but especially for young readers, and it couldn’t be timelier.”
—Willa Gold, author of Stella and Tulip
Additional Information
Click HERE to do a search for this book. You will find more information, reviews and additional purchase locations.
