5^th Grade and Up

When cell phones are banned at Branton Middle School, Frost and his friends Deedee, Wolf, and Bench come up with a new way to communicate: leaving sticky notes for each other all around the school. It catches on, and soon all the kids in school are leaving notes—though for every kind and friendly one, there is a cutting and cruel one as well.

In the middle of this, a new girl named Rose arrives at school and sits at Frost’s lunch table. Rose is not like anyone else at Branton Middle School, and it’s clear that the close circle of friends Frost has made for himself won’t easily hold another. As the sticky-note war escalates, and the pressure to choose sides mounts, Frost soon realizes that after this year, nothing will ever be the same.

Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it. – Robert Frost

This was written on the first page of this book and I really like this quote because it is so true. Some people are just too nervous to say what they feel, and some people just talk for the sake of talking.

Who ever said, ‘Sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you’ is an idiot. People get hurt and offended by words every day. This book does a great job at explaining how much words hurt. How once something is said you can’t take it back.

I agreed that people, kids and adults alike, spend way too much time on their phones. They’re like mini iPads at this point. People hardly use them for what they are. Phones! And I should know, I’m one of those people who rarely uses my iPhone to actually call someone. I rarely even text.

I never understood why my fellow classmates back in high school texted in class. Weren’t they afraid of getting caught? I really didn’t understand it when they used their phones when the lights were off. Hello! Everyone can see the light from your phone! I witnessed students doing it multiple times in high school.

It was kind of obvious that the kids would go back to passing notes when the cellphones were taken away. But using posted notes was a clever idea.

I’m going to spoil the reason why the cellphones were taken away, so I can make a point. If you don’t want the spoiler, skip to the next paragraph. The reason why is because someone texted something about a teacher. Something mean. Something really mean. You really shouldn’t take what some people say on the Internet too seriously, because it’s usually just some weirdo venting or some jerk just trying to spread the hate around.

When I first found this book, it reminded me of something I saw on Disney Channel. They were doing this thing called Make your Mark, where real kids did some pretty amazing things. At this one high school, someone put a sticky note on someone’s back that said something mean. So, one boy started a no bullying campaign and turned the situation into something good and passed around sticky notes saying things like ‘You rock!”, “You have a great smile”, “Have a nice day!” He somehow got his whole school, 1,500 kids, to join in. Click on the YouTube link below to learn the whole story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB9vCM8ZRTo

And just because I can, here’s a cool fact about Post-It notes that I learned in college. In 1970, a man named Spencer Silver was working in the 3M research laboratories trying to find a strong adhesive. He created an adhesive that stuck to objects but could easily be lifted off. No one knew what to do with the stuff, but it wasn’t discarded. Four years later, another 3M scientist named Arthur Fry was singing in his church’s choir. He used markers to keep his place in the hymnal, but they kept falling out. Remembering Silver’s adhesive, Fry used some to coat his markers. It worked! With the weak adhesive, the markers stayed in place, yet lifted off without damaging the pages. 3M began distributing Post-It Notes nationwide in 1980 – 10 years after Silver developed the super weak glue. Today they are one of the most popular office products in the world.

The thing I liked most about this book is that it felt real. I could see that everything in this book could actually happen in real life. This book should be required reading for middle school students.