{Synopsis} – When their fifth grade teacher quits and the students of classroom 507 are the only ones who know, they assume it will be one big holiday. But they soon learn that life without a teacher isn't easy, and keeping the secret is more work than they imagined.
{My thoughts} – The title is slightly misleading when it comes to the actual content within the pages. However, I enjoyed getting to know the characters and their personalities one on one as opposed to it all being one big story. Each chapter is written at the point of view of a different character and each character truly emerges from the individual they began as, to the individual the book ends with them being.
Maggie – She is a born leader or she believes she is suppose to be. When everything ends up upside down in their class she decides to take charge. Although, in the beginning she thinks it will be easy and fun to help her class mates evolve, she quickly learns that isn’t the case.
Samantha – She starts out being such a know it all. She seems to think that he class mates enjoy being told that they aren’t as good at doing things that are more her interest then theirs. She seems to think that any time she is in trouble her daddy can buy her way out. She also thinks it’s okay to bluntly disrespect others no matter who they are. That all changes as her character learns to mature throughout the pages.
Eric – He is such a quiet boy. He likes to stay hidden in the background. He appears to have a wild imagination though because he is always writing stories as a way to side track his mind. He has a real nack for thinking things need to be different and change but not wanting to be the one to suggest change or stand up for what he believes.
Kyle – He is such a goofball. He gets easily distracted and feels his mom doesn’t think he will amount to anything. He also has a talent at writing rhymes. He has a hard time finding his place among his peers and seems to choose messing around is being the better option as opposed to actually listening and learning.
Adam – He seems to always get into trouble but not for things that he does on purpose. He has a habit of doing things with good intention but they don’t always turn out the way that he’d like them to. Because of that he gets into a lot of trouble for the things he does, and when he tries to explain he’s usually told to be quiet. I don’t find the way he is treated to be fair, but then things have the potential to turn around.
All of these characters are in the same class. All of these characters struggle with themselves. They each want to be better, they want to make something of themselves. They want to become someone that people enjoy being around, think good things about and look forward to seeing on a daily basis. Each character bands together with the others to help make things better with suggestions, ideas, and better behavior. When you put you mind to doing something right it’s possible that anything can happen and these characters want to do things right, they just take awhile to get to the point where they think they will be able to handle the ramifications of their actions.
I think every child can relate to the way this entire class ends up feeling throughout the book. I think that this is a wonderful book for any child to read and that many will come away learning more about themselves and learning that not everything that they think matters right now is as important as the other things that are going on in their lives are may go on in the future.
Final Conclusion: 5 Star Rating.
