"Kids our age feel everything. We feel the pull of everything. And we can't be kids any more.... But what can we be?"
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True Shoes by Doug Wilhelm Long Strides Books
book review by Teresa Roberts
Anyone who has ever been in middle school will immediately identify with the universal theme of this heartwarming story. Wilhelm does a great job of portraying the social pressures that kids deal with as they try to find their place in a constantly changing world. Through the eyes of Russ, a sympathetic character of considerable depth and intelligence, the reader gets a free pass into his quirky world. While many of the situations that Russ and his friends get into are typical of the genre, the author takes the storytelling to a higher level by giving the main character a conscience.
Russ Trainor and his group of friends, the Out Crowd, are doing their best to survive in a world where everyone seems to have been assigned a role. Popular kids like the Royalty rule. Everyone else must scramble to find their place. That can be tricky! One wrong move and you could find yourself on the receiving end of some very cruel cyber bullying. Wilhelm manages to portray the modern dilemma of bullying gone viral. In a day and age when many students carry a handheld device that makes it possible to spread rumors at lightening speed, the potential to hurt is huge. But what happens when a few students decide to take on the socially elite of the school by tackling bullying head on? Russ and his friends do not have an easy job, but what they attempt makes the story better.
The story deals honestly with such topics as first love, difficult home lives and the fear of being different. Wilhelm creates intelligent characters who, like real kids, are never one dimensional. Russ carries a torch for Cat, but often feels taken for granted. Cat, who is from the Philippines is caught between two worlds, her home country and the new country. Cam deals with the real-life issues of losing his father in Afghanistan. Life is not simple for these middle schoolers, but then neither is life in the real world. Wilhelm manages to give a voice to a new age of kids that is both heartbreaking and uplifting.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review