{Review} Twerp - Mark Goldblatt

Twerp by Mark Goldblatt
Release Date: May 28 / 2013
Publisher: Random House

"A vivid, absorbing story about one boy’s misadventure, heartache, and hope for himself." --Rebecca Stead, Newbery Award-winning author of When You Reach Me It's not like I meant for Danley to get hurt.... Julian Twerski isn't a bully. He's just made a big mistake. So when he returns to school after a weeklong suspension, his English teacher offers him a deal: if he keeps a journal and writes about the terrible incident that got him and his friends suspended, he can get out of writing a report on Shakespeare. Julian jumps at the chance. And so begins his account of life in sixth grade--blowing up homemade fireworks, writing a love letter for his best friend (with disastrous results), and worrying whether he's still the fastest kid in school. Lurking in the background, though, is the one story he can't bring himself to tell, the one story his teacher most wants to hear. Inspired by Mark Goldblatt's own childhood growing up in 1960s Queens, Twerp shines with humor and heart. This remarkably powerful story will have readers laughing and crying right along with these flawed but unforgettable characters.

Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for this book!
You can read a quote from Twerp here.

I didn't think I would like Twerp. I don't usually like a lot of MG books so I'm really surprised at how much I liked this book. Twerp is something more mature for the younger audience and I feel like this fully explained Julian's life and how he worked through his problems.

From the start, you knew that Julian was involved in a bullying issue. That was the reason why the teacher wanted him to write his story. This book reminded a lot of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. That book was more of a light read while this one is more serious but also fun at the same time. I really enjoyed reading about Julian's adventures, problems, hopes and dreams.

The best part about this book are the characters. Julian was a great narrator and the author often incorporated Julian's feelings into what was happening. Every character (Lonnie, Educardo, Shlomo Shlomo) were distinct characters that had their own personality. Educardo was one of my favorites as he was Spanish and was humble even though he was good at a lot of things. Lonnie was something of his own. He was a devious kid and had a way of manipulating all his friends. I really connected with characters as I found a bit of my childhood (not as crazy as the story, of course) in bits and pieces of Julian's misadventures.

The situation for bullying wasn't included much throughout the book. We only got to know what happened at the end and what they did to resolve the problem. I feel like all kids were bullied at some point in their lives so it's a shame this book didn't focus more on that issue.

This book did take a while for me to get into but once I was enjoying myself, I kept turning the pages until I realized there was no more.

Overall, Twerp was a great MG books I thoroughly enjoyed. Julian's adventures, problems, hopes, and dreams was what made this book come alive and made this such a fun book to read.

P. S. Now I got what the cover means!

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