7th Grade Revolution is ‘based on true events.’ The book drops us in the story after the 7th grade has revolted, and the students learn of their success. But I’m left with questions. How did they revolt? Why? And why was it successful? Was it some sort of plan by the staff as a learning exercise? And why did it make national news? (This is about the extent of the ‘true events.’)
As I read, there were some questions that did get get answered. I had just written down my curiosity of how many students were in the seventh grade to discover that there are sixty-four. Ok. There are a lot of students that aren’t mentioned. We know the names of maybe 14 or 15 kids. What about the rest of them? What are they doing while the few named kids go off on adventures? (Well, you can probably assume what some of them were doing…) And why are these kids so attached to their school? If the FBI had wanted to take over my school as a kid (or an educator, for that matter) then they would have been welcome to it. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have a deep-seated loyalty to a building. It’s not like they were planning on tearing the building down, either. They were just planning on looking for something!
Some of the reactions the kids have are unrealistic. For example, one of the students makes a big discovery (not what she’s looking for, but still) and her reaction is very lackluster. They are also not very concerned about a thing they should be very concerned about! I’m also not about their immediate plan of violence against the FBI. And at least two students just pull out knives from their socks or pockets or something. Knives! In school! Not okay! And kids are making bombs and stuff. Also not okay.
Some of the action seems a bit abrupt, like we went to a sudden commercial break and came back to a different scene. That makes sense in shows, but transitions can (and should) be better in books. The illustrations, while nice, provided spoilers for the chapter sometimes. Do pre-chapter illustrations in children’s/young adult books normally do that? I can’t remember.
Be that as it may, there were some good moments. The class does come together and support each other when it matters. And some of the history does seem to be valid. As a previous reviewer mentioned, I am not the intended audience for this book.
I received this book as an ARC for an (extremely) honest review. Even though I’m posting it after the publish date. Oops. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
