Customer Reviews

Middle School Blues

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Middle School Blues" is a really good book. I'm finishing eighth grade (middle schools in our state are from grades 6 through 8) and this book is really good story about how middle school really is.

I remember leaving elementary school and starting Middle school for the first time and wish I had read "Middle School Blues" before hand. Reading this book, kids realize middle school is a huge, huge change and its 100 percent OK to be nervous and confused for the first week or so. Kids like Cindy and I need to be reassured that we will find all our classes, we'll remember their locker combinations and that we all will eventually get over the initial shock of having to take a shower after PE.

The chapter in the beginning of the book on Cindy's first day of PE was all to real to me! Like Cindy, our school requires showers. Also just like Cindy's school, our girl locker room just has one huge communal shower room. "Middle School Blues" handles this topic very well. Like Cindy and her friends, I and most of the girls in my class were quite uncomfortable with the idea of showering in public at school. Most new sixth graders in my school are like Cindy in the book, in that no one has ever seen them bathe since they were 4 or so years old! But as my Gym teacher Mrs. Mannering told our class on the first day, showering is a part of hygiene. And hygeine is part of physical education. And she says the school system policy is there is no better time to teach it than in real situations, such as at the end of school PE class.

It is awkward to have to shower in front of everyone, but you do get use to it. You have to understand that almost all the girls feel the exact same as you, and you have nothing to worry about. After a few weeks, most students who did not like the idea of taking a shower after class usually convert to liking a shower and even demanding a shower after class.

"Middle School Blues" really teaches us about Middle School and Middle School helps teach us about life. I think elementary schools should have all kids read this book prior to entering middle school.

Amy
8th grade
Pinellas Park, FL

I'm 22 now, but when I went into middle school, this book was my very favorite. It really helped me through the tough times...it made me feel good to think that I wasn't the only one who felt the way I did about things...obviously the author knew and communicated it through her character. I now work in a children's library and I have asked my supervisor to buy the book for the stacks. I think every 10-12 year old girl would love to read it!

This book is really funny. Despite a terrible beginning in school, twelve year-old Cindy discovers that seventh grade isn't nearly as awful as she expected. Before the year is over Cindy manages to reestablish some old friendships, make new ones, plus wins a creative writing contest!

One part of the book I really thought humorous, yet real-life, was the chapter where Cindy first had to take a shower after PE. Students having to run around in a huge shower room together naked as jay birds is many elementary kids 'worst nightmare'. My gym teacher has really good pointers, bganssle com tsshowers html, for parents and kids who share this worry. Kids who feel awkward about their first showers at school, just be like Cindy in the book and give it a try. Soon the discomfort will pass. I disagree with Tracy's view that schools should change the rules for gym and showers. Nearly all the parents who took part in Tracy's poll, misterpoll com 1335548515 html, agreed that school showers are a good idea, and that kids should shower without a bathing suit after PE unless thay have a note from a doctor with a valid excuse. The poll results are from parents, who should care about their own kids and want whats best for them.

You'll have to read the book yourself to learn the rest of the story of Cindy's first year in middle school! If you like this book I also recommend Space Station Seventh Grade also listed on Amazon.

I think 'Middle School Blues' is a great book. I'm in sixth grade and reading this book was like reading a guide book. It's an easy book to relate with.

The showers in gym and the hormonal rides are all too real! Like Cindy, I do not think showering at school is a good policy for middle school. I can't understand why so many people and polls, such as misterpoll com 1335548515 html, support them. People who encourage or support these forced shower policies are helping to violate student's right of privacy. More parents need to protest the lack of modesty some schools require of us kids in PE! Mz. Kassem, through Cindy, explains middle school life better than anyone else. Cindy goes through real life issues and reading about them, seeing how she deals with them, helps me work through simalar struggles.

In this popular fiction novel, Cindy charts the maze of middle school and composes an entertaining and bittersweet record of school rivalries, her first attempt at babysitting, how her old friendships change and new ones develop, and becoming an only child when her elder sisters move to college. This is nothing feigned about Cynthia's character and her challenges with an adjustments to her pre-teen years. Uncomfortable about shopping for her fist bra with her mother she writes, "I jiggled in to dinner. It might be my last meal eaten in freedom." Though her chronicles brim with humor, Cindy's sad portrayal of her friend Margo is a telling sign that young girls at the age of eleven and twelve are dieting for acceptance. Her middle school navigational guide contains gems of wisdom which are summed up into tidy rules: "Friends are like the weather--changeable." "All people are valuable." Though the primary focus for her work is her conflicts with her family, school, and girlfriends, her boy friends are equally as anxious about their lives. Kassem's style, language, humor, and the novel's content feel as if it is the authentic work of a twelve year old. Cindy's guide to surviving middle school is an empathetic novel and appropriate for grades five to seven.

I think that Middle School Blues is a very good book that prepares us for the future.The main character is Cindy, who was very scared to go into "Middle School". She studies at a school called Ruffner High. I liked this story because I can really relate to her experiences. Just like her,I have teachers that hassle me just the way they hassled her. I know how she feels about her friends, and how she feels lost and sometimes without friends to turn to. I would definitely rate this book five stars!

I think "Middle School Blues" is a great book. I'm in seventh grade and reading this book was like reading a guide book. It's an easy book to relate with. The showers in gym and the hormonal rides are all too real! Mz. Kassem, through Cindy, explains middle school life better than anyone else. Cindy goes through real life issues and reading about them, seeing how she deals with them, helps me work through simalar struggles.

I had a very fun time reading this book. I think that Jr high or middle school is just as hard as it is for the young lady in the story. The book had a lot of simalters to my life when I entered middle school. I think that she was not to far off about her ideals of middle school. I think that it is a really funny book but it does realte to my life and that is a little wierd. I didn;t have a much troble starting middle school as she did but it was very hard to begin. I was surprised that she had more troble adjusting to middle school because I did too. I really liked reading this book and I would read it again and agian.

In this popular fiction novel, Cindy charts the maze of middle school and composes an entertaining and bittersweet record of school rivalries, her first attempt at babysitting, how her old friendships change and new one's develop, and becoming an only child when her elder sisters move to college. There is nothing feigned about Cynthia's character and her challenges with and adjustments to her pre-teen years. Uncomfortable about shopping for her first bra with her mother, Cindy writes, "I jiggled in to dinner. It might be my last meal eaten in freedom." Though her chronicles brim with humor, Cindy's sad portrayal of her friend Margo is a telling sign that young girls at the age of eleven and twelve are dieting for acceptance. Her middle school navigational guide contains gems of wisdom which are summed up into tidy rules: "Friends are like the weather--changeable." "All people are valuable." Though the primary focus for her work is her conflicts with her family, school, and girlfriends, her boyfriends are equally as anxious about their lives. Lou Kassem's style, language, humor, and the novel's content feel as if it is the authentic work of a twelve year old. Cindy's guide to surviving middle school is an empathetic novel and appropriate for grades five to eight.

Have you ever had Middle School Blues? If you have than I have a great book for you. Lou Kassem produced a book, Middle School Blues.Cindy Cunningham is in middle school for the first year and is really not sure about the middle school life. She goes to a funeral and does something really weird. Want to know what it is? Read the book to find out. Cindy looks all over but can not find a single book on middle school life. So she believes that she can write one herself. There is a contest for young writers. To find out if she won, read the book. Take your time reading this book. If you read this book in one night you will miss alot. If you like Middle School Blues, try reading, Dance of Death. Lou Kassem's new book.