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If You're Reading This
Author:
Reedy, Trent
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Class:
Fiction
Age: 12-19
Language: English
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LC: PZ7.R254
Grade: 7-12
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ISBN-13: 9780545433426
LCCN: 2013045430
Imprint: Arthur A. Levine Books
Publisher: Scholastic Inc
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Pub Date: 08/26/2014
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $17.99
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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296 pages ; 22 cm
H 8.25",
W 5.5"
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles
Brodart's YA Reads for Adults
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Bibliographies:
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Awards:
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Horn Book Guide Titles, Rated 1 - 4
Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People
Publishers Weekly Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Publishers Weekly
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TIPS Subjects:
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Family Life
Military Fiction
Sports Stories
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BISAC Subjects: |
JUVENILE FICTION / Family / Parents
JUVENILE FICTION / Historical / Military & Wars
JUVENILE FICTION / Sports & Recreation / Football
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LC Subjects:
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Families, Iowa, Juvenile fiction
Family life, Fiction
Family life, Iowa, Fiction
High schools, Fiction
High schools, Juvenile fiction
Iowa, Fiction
Iowa, Juvenile fiction
Last letters before death, Juvenile fiction
Letters, Fiction
Mothers and sons, Fiction
Mothers and sons, Juvenile fiction
Schools, Fiction
Soldiers, Family relationships, Juvenile fiction
Soldiers, Fiction
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SEARS Subjects: |
Family life, Iowa, Fiction
High schools, Fiction
Iowa, Fiction
Letters, Fiction
Mother-son relationship, Fiction
School stories, Fiction
Soldiers, Fiction
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Reading Programs: |
Accelerated Reader Level:
4.6
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Points: 13.0
Lexile Level:
700
Reading Counts Level:
4.3
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Points: 21.0
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| Annotations |
| Brodart's TOP Young Adult Titles | 08/01/2014 |
| Eight years after his father is mysteriously killed in Afghanistan, Mike, who is sacrificing everything to keep what remains of his emotionally tattered family together, gets a letter from his dad. Taking comfort in several encouraging letters his father wrote from Afghanistan, Mike applies this newfound wisdom while searching for the person who has been holding on to the letters and coming to terms with how his dad really died. 352pp. |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Publishers Weekly | 08/18/2014 |
| Ages 12-up. Former Iowa National Guardsman Reedy (Divided We Fall) returns to Riverside, Iowa (last seen in his Stealing Air) to tell the coming-of-age story of 15-year-old Mike Wilson, who's still dealing with his father's death in Afghanistan, seven years earlier. Raised by his overprotective mother, Mike yearns to play football, but is pushed to focus on school and his part-time job. When letters written by his father before his death start showing up in the mail from an unknown sender, they give Mike a connection he thought lost forever. With each letter giving him a mission--go to a party, ask a girl out, forgive someone--he finds the courage and motivation to live fully. But in the process, he must confront bullies, get around his mother's disapproval, and find out the truth behind his father's death. Powerful and emotionally raw, with sympathetic characters and a thought-provoking premise, this tale reflects Reedy's strengths: evoking the small-town American spirit, capturing the feel of the military, and getting into the heart of his teenage protagonist. Agent: Ammi-Joan Paquette, Erin Murphy Literary Agency. (Aug.). 352p. Web-Exclusive Review. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2014. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| Booklist | 08/01/2014 |
| Grades 7-10. Mike Wilson is a good kid. He gets good grades, works at the farm of a family friend to help his single mother make ends meet, and even tolerates his obnoxious little sister. His father died a hero in Afghanistan seven years ago, and as Mike's fifteenth birthday approaches, he has begun receiving letters from his dad, delivered by an anonymous member of his father's unit. All Mike wants to do is play football, and when the first piece of his father's serialized advice encourages him to embrace the glory days of high school, he forges his mother's signature and joins the team. What follows is hazing from a bully on the team, a complicated relationship with a Muslim girl on the social sidelines, and guilt and confusion about his interwoven secrets. Many readers will anticipate a revelation about a hidden identity, but that won't stop them from enjoying this literary, nuanced, respectful treatment of military themes, sports dynamics, and small-town life. Barthelmess, Thom. 304p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2014. |
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| Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books | 10/01/2014 |
| Ad. Gr. 7-10. Mike has spent the last few years being the dutiful son, focusing on school and his part-time job and keeping his mother calm as she continues to grieve for his father, a National Guardsman killed in Afghanistan. This year, however, the high school sophomore is ready to cut loose, and a series of letters from his father, planned by the man before his death to arrive in the run-up to Mike's sixteenth birthday, finally impel Mike to act on his restlessness. In each letter his father assigns him a "mission," and Mike takes those missions seriously. To get involved in school activities, Mike forges Mom's signature on permission forms for him to play football; to find a girlfriend, Mike rethinks his relationship with Isma, a Muslim classmate who's also in the midst of resetting her submissive relationship with her parents. The actual sender of the letters remains a mystery, though, and as Mike pursues his identity, he discovers the lingering guilt that fuels his mother's sadness, and the long-concealed pain within a neighbor who has been a support to the family over the past years. The letters themselves, though, are often outright mawkish, and the change football wreaks in Mike's life, with his almost immediate star status, is contrived. Fans of Reedy's recent blood and thunder thriller Divided We Fall (BCCB 1/14) may, however, be pleasantly surprised to see what he can do with a quieter, more thoughtful take on a boy stepping into a man's shoes. EB. 296p. THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIV. OF ILLINOIS, c2014. |
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| Horn Book Guide | 05/01/2015 |
| 4. Since his father died in Afghanistan, Mike has become a model citizen: getting good grades; working after school; and taking care of his fragile, overprotective mother. Right before Mike turns sixteen, a series of letters comes from his father, written before he died and outlining the horrors of war. The advice-filled letters add a didactic tone to this coming-of-age story. bc. 300pg. THE HORN BOOK, c2015. |
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| Kirkus Reviews | 07/01/2014 |
| A moving study of war's long-reaching effects on families.Mike Wilson's father "had been dead seven years the day his first letter arrived." How can this be? Who is sending them? His father died in Afghanistan on Aug. 28, 2005, and 15-year-old Mike, his mother and his younger sister have moved on with their lives, though his mother avoids the painful subject of his father. It's difficult, though, to navigate high school without a father's guidance, and this letter and those that follow are intended to help. Many contain a mission for Mike--get involved with a sport, ask a girl out, go to church, get your driver's license, go easy on your sister, and be nice to your mother. The letters offer Mike an approach to succeeding in high school and a means of saying goodbye to his father, and they offer readers, along with Mike, a compelling mystery: How can a dead man send letters? Mike is a believable character, his first-person narration capably spun. A whole story constructed around letters intended to teach life lessons can't help but feel didactic, though earnest and well meaning.Readers will anticipate each letter right along with Mike, and they may receive some good guidance about life along with him. (Fiction. 10-16). 304pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2014. |
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| School Library Journal | 07/01/2014 |
| Gr 6-8. Mike Wilson is an ordinary teenager, more responsible, perhaps, than most. His father died in Afghanistan when he was eight. Suddenly, he is getting posthumous advice from his father in the form of letters, the sender of which is a mystery. This is a good premise, if not a particularly original concept. Reedy misses the opportunity to grip his readers by doing the obvious. For example, Mike follows dad's advice--go out for football--only to discover that he's a star player. Mike's relationship with his overly protective mother provides some drama, and the developing friendship with his classmate, Isma Rafee, of Persian descent, will appeal to many teens, as will the revelation of the identity of the mysterious letter sender. Although predictable and cliche-ridden, If You're Reading This will appeal to reluctant readers. Nina Sachs, Walker Memorial Library, Westbrook, ME. 304p. SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2014. |
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| ~VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates Magazine - Retired Journal) | 08/01/2014 |
| 3Q 3P J S. As in his earlier books, Words in the Dust (Scholastic, 2011) and Divided We Fall (Scholastic, 2014), Reedy uses his National Guard service in Afghanistan as a source for a story. This time, it is a bittersweet one, as Mike Wilson gets to know the father he lost when he was eight, thanks to a batch of letters and videos his father made during his tour. Should he be killed, his father arranged to have one of his Guard buddies mail them one at a time in the months before his son's sixteenth birthday. Like Daniel from Divided, his mother is often overwhelmed by mental problems, and in spite of her anxieties, Mike loves football and is determined to play on the team. Dad's letters conveniently support his decisions, urge him to enjoy the best years of his life, make fast friends, kiss a girl, and solve problems through living by a code Dad coins, "the Cowboy Way." The letters get a little sappy, but the pieces fit together and build toward a more interesting and compelling climax as the identity of the secret messenger and the circumstances of his father's death are revealed. Though it lacks the thematic heft of Reedy's two earlier books with roots in the war, If You're Reading This will work for readers who like well-written sports, play-by-play, and are willing to put up with a little barbershop men-to-boys advice in order to have the gridiron action.--Donna L Phillips. 352p. VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES, c2014. |
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9780545433426,dl.it[0].title
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