About This Book:
A humorous and heartwarming middle-grade graphic memoir about fitting in, facing bullies, and finding the right pair of glasses.
Sixth grade isn’t as great as Rex thought it would be. He’s the only kid who hasn’t had a growth spurt, and the bullies won’t let him forget it. His closest friend is unreliable, at best. And there’s a cute girl in his class, who may or may not like hiim back. With so much going on, everything is a blur — including Rex’s vision! So when he discovers that he needs glasses, and his family can only afford the ugliestpair in the store, any hope Rex had of fitting in goes completely out of focus.
In this true coming-of-age story, Rex has his sights set on surviving sixth grade, but now he’s got to find a way to do it with glasses, no friends, and a family that just doesn’t get it!
*Review Contributed By Karen Yingling, Staff Reviewer*
Struggling with Sight Issues
In this graphic novel, young Rex Ogle (Free Lunch) is apprehensive about starting middle school. He lives with his hardworking mother, younger brother Ford, and Ford’s father, Sam. Rex’s father has a new family, and while he is well to do, does not support Rex monetarily as well as he should. Middle school is tough, especially when his long time best friend Drew decides to hang out with the “cool kids” that bully Rex and make fun of the fact that he gets free lunch and his mother works at a local Chinese restaurant. Rex struggles in school because he can’t see the board, and he gets headaches from trying to focus. He eventually gets examined for glasses, but ends up with a pair he thinks are ugly because they are less expensive. The lenses are thicker than he expects, and Oliver makes fun of that as well. There are other tensions in Rex’s world, including the fact that his mother fights with his abuela, who is one of the few people who seem to understand Rex, and who offers rare treats like new clothes and different food, which angers Rex’s mother further. Hiding during lunch one day, Rex meets Scott, who used to wear glasses and likes comics. Rex had spoken up when Oliver was picking on Scott, and the two become friends, bonding over their shared interests. Middle school is still a struggle for Rex, but he gains a little perspective when his abuela shares things about her impoverished upbringing that are even worse, and he talks to his mom about her reasons for resenting her mother. After suffering with broken glasses for a while, Rex gets new ones that he likes better. His father pays for them after his mother complains, and thanks to contributions from both his abuela and father, Rex is able to go on a Washington, D.C. trip with his classmates and feels somewhat better about his whole experience.
Good Points
The style of artwork is appealing, and conducive to showing all of the angst that Rex is feeling. His mother and stepfather seem a bit nicer in this book than in Free Lunch, so the story centers more on Rex’s struggles in school and with his glasses. It’s good that he makes a friend not only in Drew but with a couple of other students who like Star Wars and comics; it was very realistic that his elementary school classmates could have gone to a different middle school, leaving him with few friends. Rex does make efforts at standing up for himself and for others, which was good to see. Graphic memoirs see a lot of circulation, but fewer of them have boys as the main characters.
It’s important to point out that this is a memoir, because I think that students today are a little more accepting of people’s differences. There are a lot of memoirs in graphic novel format, including Krosoczka’s Hey, Kiddo and Sunshine, Copeland’s Cub, and Tatulli’s Short and Skinny.
This is a good choice for readers who like graphic novels about children who struggle with various issues, like Telgemeier’s Guts or Libenson’s Invisible Emmie.
