The Misfits-Michael Solomon

Solomon, Michael

English, Period 4

November 14, 2008

Book Report Review

I read the book The Misfits by James Howe. I was first read this book in fifth grade by my teacher, I loved it from the first chapter, it was amazing, and I felt like it was a book that anyone could relate to. Coincidently, The Misfits has been on my reading list every year since 5^th grade. It was a no brainer to pick this book because we were already a third of the way through and I could practically recite the dialogue by heart. Not to mention the fact that in previous years it had helped me set a basic system of guidelines for how I treat other people. This book seemed like the perfect fit to do a report on.

This realistic, down to earth, and descriptive novel follows the story of four middle school oddballs. Bobby, Addie, Joe, and Skeezy are the four least popular, most made fun of kids at Paint Brush Falls Middle School. They have all been tormented, ridiculed, and looked down upon since early elementary school, all for different reasons. Bobby is a witty, intuitive, and articulate young man who was made fun of since first grade for his famous and fattening peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwiches, earning the nickname fluff. Addie is a very intellectual, tall, gangly, and logical girl who is commonly referred to as no it all or brainiac. Joe is a very confused young man who is courageously coming out of the closet. He, in my opinion, is the worst treated out of everyone, on top of figuring out his sexuality, he intrepidly and maturely overlooks being called faggot, homo, and queer by his rather immature classmate Kevin Hennasy. Finally, Skeezy is a greaser-type fellow who enjoys talking like The Fonz, greasing back his hair, and "fighting the man". Skeezy is commonly known among adults as that young hoodlum. These four friends refer to themselves as The Misfits, hints the title of the book. These four friends are tired of being called names and being treated like dirt so they decide to run for class council s a minority party. Cleverly, the gang uses the fact that they have been called names, teased, harassed and tormented for the past number of years as their campaigns slogan and theme, dubbing their party The No Name Party. As much as I would LOVE to spoil the rest of the book, I am only allowed to give a few details about the characters and plot and I would highly encourage you to read this book.

It is not a quote that I found in particular, but more of a series of events. Joe and the gang of misfits come to school one day, only to find that Kevin Hennessey has put a post-it note on his locker spelling out the word fagget. Joe calls him an idiot for spelling faggot wrong and goes on with his life like it never happened. I feel that this expresses to the fullest how a mature person can over look such ignorance and intolerance. I truly feel that the route Joe took was the right thing to do, especially with a person like Kevin. I chose this sequence of events to model how EVERYONE should act in this given scenario.

I am choosing to rate this book with ice cream bowls because of their weekly forums at the local candy bar. The four misfits would always go once a week to enjoy ice cream, soda, and French fries while discussing issues and really anything that was going on in each other's lives. I am defiantly going to rate this book five out of five ice cream bowls. My highest regards for this book.

Finally, there are many reasons why I would recommend reading this book. The first is that it really does change your perspective of minorities, misfits, and people in general, it teaches you to look beyond the surface of a person, and encourages you to see them for who they are. The second is that it is wonderfully written; James Howe's brilliant and descriptive depiction of these characters and their story is truly exquisite and, in my opinion, deserves a multitude of awards, if you want to laugh, cry, and feel the emotion of a novel, this is the one for you. I recommend this book for all ages because I really do believe that its message is universal to all demographics. I do, however have to warn you in advance that there is a fair amount of slang that may offend some people; there is also the matter of a homosexual character and his story that may discourage some people from reading, but other than that, there are no major faux pas in the plot that I can see. I CAN GARENTEE THAT ANYONE WHO READS THIS ONE OF A KIND NOVEL WILL LOVE IT AS MUCH AS ME.