He Forgot to Say Goodbye

He Forgot to Say Goodbye

Saenz, B. (2008). He forgot to say goodbye. New York: Simon & Schuster for Kids.

He Forgot to Say Goodbye is a very believable contemporary fiction novel about two very different boys.  Ramiro “Ram” Lopez and Jake Upthegrove are complete opposites: Ram is a stereotypical Hispanic boy, poor, struggling, having to take on adult emotional responsibilities and Jake is a stereotypical rich white boy, spoiled, disrespectful, and entitled.  Only, they share one thing in common, the one thing that has shaped who they are up to this point, and that one thing is being abandoned by their fathers at a time when little boys need their dads the most.  The two boys, who go to school next door to one another, Ram at a public school and Jake at a posh private school, meet and become friends and over time, together, figure out that having a loser dad doesn’t mean they have to be losers as well, and that you just can’t help who your family is (Ram has a troubled brother and Jake has an alcoholic mother who’s married to a his cheating step-dad), but you can help who you are.  Written in a back-and-forth style, He Forgot to Say Goodbye is an example of the growth of the two boys, both emotionally and socially, which makes the novel very identifiable to upper middle to high school readers.

The Juvie Three

The Juvie Three

Korman, G. (2008). The juvie three. New York: Hyperion Books.

Gecko, Terence, and Arjay are all troubled young men who are headed down the wrong path quickly.  All three of the boys have found themselves in juvenile detention or in Arjay’s case, prison, when a man named Doug Healy comes along with a plan to reform them.  Things don’t start off so smoothly and then go really wrong when Mr. Healy falls off the fire escape trying to break up a fight between the three boys.  The boys drop off an unconscious, bleeding Mr. Healy at the local hospital but then begin to lead a model life in his absence- well, all except Terence, but even he is good for Terence, only angering the school theft-ring lord.  While Mr. Healy is not only without his memory, he is also without ID, making him a John Doe.  Along with Gecko’s rich girlfriend, Roxie, the three hatch a very successful plan to spring Mr. Healy from the awful psychiatric hospital where he’s been transferred and long story short, events that transpire during this escape, Roxie’s pocket-policeman and Terence’s theft-ring-king all making appearances,  prompt Mr. Healy’s memory and save the day.

The Juvie Three is appropriate for 7^th through 12^th grades and qualifies as a good contemporary fiction novel with the boys growth toward adulthood and it also meets each of the levels of Havighurst’s developmental tasks.  This novel would be an excellent choice for a middle school book talk for boys.