Every once in a while, a student will show me that they’re world aware. It’s always so moving to me when kids show that they’re familiar with something other than the digital world. Addie, from James Howe’s Addie on the Inside, reminded me of those students. There was a conversation she had with another girl about why she cared if a celebrity was being beaten by her boyfriend–it didn’t effect her directly. The response she gave was the response I should have given to the kid who asked me why he should care about the genocide that happened during the Holocaust, or the genocide going on in Darfur.

James Howe uses beautiful language to depict a girl who is trying to find the balance between being who she is and being who she thinks people want her to be. This novel in verse is definitely worth a read.