Name: Sidetracked
ISBN: 9781419726019

Diana Asher

"Seventh-grader Joseph Friedman is friendless and puny, with ADD to boot. He spends most of his time avoiding the class bully and hiding out in the Resource Room. But the Resource Room teacher encourages (i.e., practically forces) him to join the school cross country team, and he meets Heather, a new student who's tough and athletic and refuses to be pushed around by anybody"--

Sidetracked

Diana Harmon Asher

If middle school were a race, Joseph Friedman wouldn’t even be in last place—he’d be on the sidelines. With an overactive mind and phobias of everything from hard-boiled eggs to gargoyles, he struggles to understand his classes, let alone his fellow classmates. So he spends most of his time avoiding school bully Charlie Kastner and hiding out in the Resource Room, a safe place for misfit kids like him. But then, on the first day of seventh grade, two important things happen. First, his Resource Room teacher encourages (i.e., practically forces) him to join the school track team, and second, he meets Heather, a crazy-fast runner who isn’t going to be pushed around by Charlie Kastner or anybody else. With a new friend and a new team, Joseph finds himself off the sidelines and in the race (quite literally) for the first time. Is he a good runner? Well, no, he’s terrible. But the funny thing about running is, once you're in the race, anything can happen.

Jeni Enjaian

WOW!!!!

It has been a long time since I identified with a book on as many levels as this one. As a runner and a teacher, coincidentally at a school with the same name, I loved this book! While I do not have ADD like Joseph, this book gives me an incredible insight into my own students and helps explain so many of the things that my students with this disorder struggle with. The fact that the resource teacher (a system I like so much better than inclusion but that is a discussion for a much different forum) is also the coach and clearly has only a fraction of coaching experience but still puts her whole heart into it made me wish that my school system had a local cross country and track league for middle schools so that I could do the same. Maybe I will start one. :)

On so many levels, Asher hits it out of the park, humor, reality, and so much more.

I highly recommend this book.

Sidetracked

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