A review by the_fabric_of_words
Ben Y and the Ghost in the Machine by K.A. Holt
5.0
This is also in verse, and now Ben Y is exploring their pronouns, dying (dissolving) their hair, even as Mr. Mann, the mean school principal (is there any other kind?), promotes a stifling dress code and "Safe Space" where Ben Y and others feel anything but safe.
Ben Y idolizes the new, fashionable and super-confident Ace, who enters the afterschool Typing Club run by the venerable and much-loved librarian, Ms. J. If only Ace would notice Ben Y! But Ace's presence in their closed typing circle threatens the others in the group, most notably those who rely on Ben Y's best-friendship.
Then Ben Y's older, and very deceased, brother types back in the game chatroom created expressly for Ben Y, and they know something's not right. Because there is no such thing as ghosts.
Ben Y creates a tear-sheet, a one-page skewer of Mr. Mann, The Unauthorized Hart Times, and anonymously posts it around school. For a while, Ben Y is willing to hide behind Ace, let others think Ace created the funny caricatures and text about the unsafe "Safe Space."
Until they claim ownership and confront Mr. Mann, and then the battle lines are clearly drawn.
I won't spoil how it ends, or who's pretending to be Ben Y's brother, or what happens to Ms. J (hint: again).
Enjoy!
On a total side note, I did have a bone to pick with the layout of the text. This is no comment at all on the author or illustrator. The graphics and textual representations of game chat and texts were super well done and the illustrations hilarious.
But I loved how, in the first book, there were two, sometimes up to three columns of text per page. The pages were wider, too. The poems are only a few words per line, and the column layout and wider pages made for relatively fewer pages overall. In other words, the book didn't suffer from white space bloat and lots of excess pages, like so many other verse novels do.
Not so this one. By comparison, this is a heavy tome. It's 426 pages, even though I'm certain it's got far fewer words, overall, than Tristan Strong who punches through a comparable number of pages. But the text in this one is one column only, and the pages are not as wide. And the paper is heavy. I mean, hard-to-hold-up heavy.
I taught middle school and watched kids compare the widths of book spines during trips to the library. It made no difference if the total word count was lower. If the book looked huge and felt heavy, they'd choose a skinnier neighbor. Any skinnier neighbor. It's been a pet peeve of mine for a while now that verse books, in general, have so many pages they turn kids off on sight (on ereaders, too). The first BenBee book brilliantly solved that problem and I'd love to see the multi-column format come back.
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
Ben Y idolizes the new, fashionable and super-confident Ace, who enters the afterschool Typing Club run by the venerable and much-loved librarian, Ms. J. If only Ace would notice Ben Y! But Ace's presence in their closed typing circle threatens the others in the group, most notably those who rely on Ben Y's best-friendship.
Then Ben Y's older, and very deceased, brother types back in the game chatroom created expressly for Ben Y, and they know something's not right. Because there is no such thing as ghosts.
Ben Y creates a tear-sheet, a one-page skewer of Mr. Mann, The Unauthorized Hart Times, and anonymously posts it around school. For a while, Ben Y is willing to hide behind Ace, let others think Ace created the funny caricatures and text about the unsafe "Safe Space."
Until they claim ownership and confront Mr. Mann, and then the battle lines are clearly drawn.
I won't spoil how it ends, or who's pretending to be Ben Y's brother, or what happens to Ms. J (hint: again).
Enjoy!
On a total side note, I did have a bone to pick with the layout of the text. This is no comment at all on the author or illustrator. The graphics and textual representations of game chat and texts were super well done and the illustrations hilarious.
But I loved how, in the first book, there were two, sometimes up to three columns of text per page. The pages were wider, too. The poems are only a few words per line, and the column layout and wider pages made for relatively fewer pages overall. In other words, the book didn't suffer from white space bloat and lots of excess pages, like so many other verse novels do.
Not so this one. By comparison, this is a heavy tome. It's 426 pages, even though I'm certain it's got far fewer words, overall, than Tristan Strong who punches through a comparable number of pages. But the text in this one is one column only, and the pages are not as wide. And the paper is heavy. I mean, hard-to-hold-up heavy.
I taught middle school and watched kids compare the widths of book spines during trips to the library. It made no difference if the total word count was lower. If the book looked huge and felt heavy, they'd choose a skinnier neighbor. Any skinnier neighbor. It's been a pet peeve of mine for a while now that verse books, in general, have so many pages they turn kids off on sight (on ereaders, too). The first BenBee book brilliantly solved that problem and I'd love to see the multi-column format come back.
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/