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A review by kendallbridgete
A Whole New Ballgame by Phil Bildner
2.0
Rip and Red are long-time best friends. Both love basketball and video games and Rip is especially caring and protecting of his buddy who is clearly on the autism spectrum. They are entering 5th grade, where they discover that the teacher who's taught 5th grade at their elementary school forever is gone. Enter Mr. Acevedo, brand-new/first year hip teacher with a ponytail, tattoos, and multiple ear piercings. Mr. Acevedo is adamantly against the whole testing-to-get-ready-for-the-tests-that-prep-you-for-THE TESTS. Mr. Acevedo is also the new basketball coach and Rip and Red are so excited when they learn that they make the team, although Rip is decidedly less excited when Mr. Acevedo pairs him up with Avery Goodman, a classmate in a wheelchair with a bad attitude, to work on a group project.
I had a difficult time rating this book. I see that lots of other teachers loved it...but, to me, the whole thing just felt FORCED. It was OK. It just wasn't for me.
However, that being said, I DO NOT think it is a BAD book. I would never recommend a bad book to kids, but I feel like I could--and will--recommend this book to students. Even though *I* just thought it was an OK/2-star book, I think that KIDS will really enjoy it. In fact, a student of mine saw this book on my desk and exclaimed, "Hey, that kid looks like me!" I told him a little bit about it and asked him if he'd like to see this book in our library and he excitedly said "Yeah!" And this kid doesn't get all that excited about books, so if this book can bring that out in him, I'm all for it, even if it's not a book for ME.
I had a difficult time rating this book. I see that lots of other teachers loved it...but, to me, the whole thing just felt FORCED. It was OK. It just wasn't for me.
However, that being said, I DO NOT think it is a BAD book. I would never recommend a bad book to kids, but I feel like I could--and will--recommend this book to students. Even though *I* just thought it was an OK/2-star book, I think that KIDS will really enjoy it. In fact, a student of mine saw this book on my desk and exclaimed, "Hey, that kid looks like me!" I told him a little bit about it and asked him if he'd like to see this book in our library and he excitedly said "Yeah!" And this kid doesn't get all that excited about books, so if this book can bring that out in him, I'm all for it, even if it's not a book for ME.