Bent Not Broken is part of the One-2-One Series that features students in the Best Buddies club at a Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School. The Best Buddies club is an organization at this fictional high school that pairs students with special needs with other students at the school to be friends, participate in social events and basically just to have a buddy at school.
In this story, we meet Maddie, a 14 year old who has had a traumatic brain injury after a bike accident and Justin who is in his final year of high school. Both Maddie and Justin have challenges at home. Maddie's identical twin sister is growing up and growing away from the family, and Justin lost his sister the year before and it seems that his family is falling apart as well. I love how Justin is with Maddie- I think we don't often think of teenage boys as being empathetic and understanding, but Justin is just that. As a mom of two teen-age boys, they often experience more emotions than they let on. It was nice to see that side of Justin. I also liked reading about Maddie and her struggles to get her brain to work the way she wants it to. It was a good reminder that what we see on the surface of someone isn't everything that is going on inside them. I need to keep this in mind when I meet the new students in the fall.
Even though this morning I picked up 6 new books at Chapters, I am heading back shortly to get the other books in this series. It's a winner for sure.
I wouldn't hesitate to put this book in my Intermediate classroom- even though it is set at a high school. There isn't anything that would give me pause.
Check out Lorna Schultz Nicholson's website here: https://lornaschultznicholson.com/
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