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“I know what you are going to say: sticks, stones, and broken bones, but works can kick you in the gut. They wriggle underneath your skin and start to itch. They set their hooks into you and pull. Words accumulate like a cancer, and then they eat away at you until there is nothing left. And once they are let loose there really is no taking them back.” (2)
Author: John David Anderson
Publication Date: May 2, 2017
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
This books centers on Frost and his group of friends as they struggle through middle school. The main plot of the book begins when phones are banned from the school and so Frost and his friends begin to leave post-it notes around the school as a way of passing messages. This note passing catches on throughout the whole school but the notes don’t stay positive between friends. Mean words are just as common as the kind ones and Frost learns how bullying can take over a middle school. I chose this book because the story takes place at a middle school, the focus age for my health topic, so the students can directly relate to the characters. I also found that many other books used curse words in their description of bullying, as does happen, but decided that wasn’t appropriate for 6th graders. I also like that it’s a new book and take cyber bullying into account as that is becoming more relevant in today’s youth than it was even from when I was in middle school.
Core Integration:
I would use this book as a novel to be read in an English class. The students would need to list out the plot events and give supporting details from the text that show how the characters develop throughout the book. Each roadblock that the characters face is a chance to respond to their situations and the students would need to track that progress. The website for this author and book also has an activity where students write out kind comments on sticky notes as a way to spread positivity, this could be a post-reading activity to bring a better atmosphere to the classroom.
The Sticky-Note Challenge
National Health Education Standards:
- HBO 3. Avoid bullying, being a bystander to bullying, or being a victim of bullying.
- V1.12.9 Analyze how mental and emotional health can affect violence-related behaviors.
- V1.12.10 Analyze the negative consequences of violence to perpetrators, victims, and bystanders.
- NHES S2.8.4 Analyze how the school and community can affect personal health practices and behaviors.
- NHES S2.8.6 Analyze the influence of technology on personal and family health.
- NHES S8.8.3 Work cooperatively to advocate for healthy individuals, families, and schools.
- WaHES Standard H1.So5.6a Describe different types of harassment, intimidation, and bullying.
- WaHES Standard H1.So5.6b Analyze harmful effects of harassment, intimidation, and bullying.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards:
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.1 Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.
- CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.3 Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.