I may be in trouble...but there's more to my story.
School has never been fun for Chace. Because of his huge jaw and crooked teeth, he rarely gets through a day of classes without bullies like Ivan taunting him. Things worsen when Chace's mom starts dating an Iranian man and Ivan's harassment takes a racist turn.
Chace has had enough and decides to retaliate. But when Chace's Internet threats backfire, the result is a suspension from school. Now Chace will have to explain to his mom how his attempt to defend her made him look like the bad guy. And he'll have to figure out how to deal with a struggle that he can't seem to win.
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Review
"This tightly-crafted , five-book series of hi-lo titles with contemporary suburban high school settings, diverse characters, and dramatic situations wherein each protagonist's poor decision results in a week-long school suspension, will enthrall reluctant readers. Characters acting to fight unfairness and injustice must deal with school administrators and work to reestablish family harmony. Satisfying story resolutions will bring readers back for more. In Over the Tracks , Lucy, a white runner in a single-parent household of modest means, is forced to grow up quickly when her mom is debilitated by cancer. Now money is too tight to replace torn sneakers, let alone pay for the long-awaited school trip. When Lucy, with no knowledge of drug culture, attempts to sell her mom's medical marijuana to get new sneakers, she gets caught--and suspended. A Cut Too Far features Chace, a white boy whose family is shattered by divorce and whose deformed face--an over-large jaw and crooked teeth--has earned him years of daily bullying in school. When the bully spots Chace's mom's Iranian boyfriend, the victimization becomes racial. Chace finds himself subscribed to a 'Middle East-themed adult site' that, by the time he manages to unsubscribe, has landed him on numerous similar mailing lists. His mom is disturbed by what she finds on his computer at home, while crude drawings and taunts about Muslim terrorists crowd him at school. A computer geek friend helps Chase retaliate through a social media campaign, but when Chace's Instagram post is perceived as a threat, police intervene and Chace gets punished for finally fighting back. In Testing the Truth , Japanese-American Kai Tamura posts photos of his trigonometry teacher changing answers on standardized tests, taken surreptitiously during Kai's own failed attempt to steal answers to an upcoming trig test, and is suspended for making false accusations. News coverage of the event supports the administration's angle. This smirch on his record will hurt his college applications far more than would a single test score, so Kai must prove his photos are actually originals. This highly engaging series deserves shelf space in classrooms, as well as school and public libraries, and would make a great gift for that special reluctant reader. "--starred, VOYA
--Journal
"Bullies and the bullied take to social media with scary results in one of five titles kicking off the Suspended series, written at a fourth-grade reading level. For years, Chace has endured taunting for his jaw deformity and crooked teeth, largely at the hands of class bully Ivan. But when Ivan targets Chace's mother's Iranian-American boyfriend, Tahir, calling him a Muslim terrorist, Chace snaps. The battle escalates via fake website profiles, and Chace's ultimate retaliation--a violent online threat--gets him suspended, among other consequences. The briskly moving story spotlights the powerful ripple effect of cyberbullying, and Chace's own change of heart suggests one form of positive resolution for an increasingly prevalent and troubling problem. "--Publishers Weekly
--Journal
About the Author
Herman Brown is the author of the third book in Darby Creek's Red Zone series, The Option. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.