Book Review: The Word Gang by Mark McKenna – AND a Giveaway!

Happy Book Review Tuesday yet again! Today we are taking a trip back to school – high school. Shudder, gasp. And believe me, this high school experience is pretty rough. Fortunately, the book is pretty great, so it’s okay.

My review copy of The Word Gang was provided by the author, Mark McKenna – who has generously agreed to also provide a copy for a giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Kalisha Jackson is a good kid. A good kid who cut the entire last year of school. Yes, it’s possible for both of those statements to be true. Caught up in her parents’ separation and her (former) best friend’s teenage pregnancy and subsequent child-rearing, Kalisha skipped an entire year of classes without anyone finding out. The book opens with her rejoining the world of school – and admitting her secret to her mother. The story details the aftermath of this – and what a story it is, full of a class of “misfits”, a wild-eyed true believer of a “teacher”, a wise neighbor-cum-actual teacher, television cameras, lots of food, and WORDS.

In a nutshell, Kalisha and the new friends she makes in Project Restart – the wild-eyed true believer’s brain child, which takes the concept of tough love to scary new heights – form the Word Gang in response to the ridiculously strict rules and regulations of their new classroom. The M.O. of the Word Gang: to use big, obscure, random words in the classroom, much to the consternation and extreme frustration of the W-E TB, who gets even wilder-eyed once his students start using words he doesn’t know…

This is a delicious story for anyone who loves words (like me), the triumph of the underdog (also like me), and a big fat helping of come-uppance (definitely like me). It’s also a fun story. McKenna’s writing is engaging and he tells a tale that pulls you in from the get-go. His characters are immensely likeable, from Kalisha herself to her fellow Word Gangers BD and Sambaht, to the wise old owl (and unsung hero) of the story Mr. Spinoza. And the ones that are not – most notably the W-E TB Jack Ralston, teen mom/drug addict Becca, and the parade of other folks responsible for Project Restart – are still great characters, delivering frustration, aggravation, and irritation exactly when (and how) they are supposed to in order to keep the pace of the story up.

What a great book for kids who feel like the system doesn’t understand or appreciate them. What a great book for frustrated parents who are stymied by their kids’ attitudes toward school and/or school’s attitudes toward their kids. What a great book to promote the value of intergenerational friendships, the importance of never giving up (even on yourself), and the crucial life-lesson that there is a silver-lining in everyone/everything if you are willing to look past surfaces. In short, what a great book… Well done Mark McKenna, well done!