No Teacher?!

Ralph Fletcher's Flying Solo is one of the books on the Reading Olympics list this year.  The whole story takes place on Friday, April 28th when Mr. Fabiano's sixth grade class is left without a teacher.  Apparently both Mr. Fabiano and the substitute called in sick and somehow the office never caught on so there was never a replacement substitute found.  The sixth graders decided rather than tell someone they were going to run the class themselves.  Think the day went as planned?  Of course I'm not going to tell you-you'll have to read it yourself.

The cover art is also terrible. 

Flying Solo is told from multiple perspectives, mostly students in Mr. Fabiano's class.  The varying perspectives help tell the story of the day and they reveal the complicated web of relationships that make up a 6th grade class.

This book had all of the ingredients for a good story but it just didn't grab me.  I have to admit I really wasn't that engaged in the story.  I don't even think I would recommend this book to others.  I was surprised it made the Reading Olympics book-I have been very impressed with all of the other books.

I was impressed with how the students handled the situation and I would hope that my students could manage the class the same way.  Unfortunately that's one of the only positive things I can say about this book.

Running things yourself....that's kids stuff.