When the first Scholastic flyers came home from my kids’ school this fall, I gladly spent a chunk of money on books to support their classrooms. While going through their selections, I came across the book “Save Me a Seat” by Sarah Weeks and Gata Varadarajan and bought it on a whim. That whim proved to be a great move because this book was outstanding.
Save Me a Seat follows the lives of Joe and Ravi, two fifth graders in a Hamilton, NJ school. Joey and Ravi don’t think that they have anything in common, but soon they realize that they both have a common enemy, the class bully, and a common mission to take control of their lives. The book switches back and forth between their perspectives as they navigate one week at school.
Ravi has just moved to New Jersey from India and struggles with how different things are in America. In India he had been the most popular kid, star student, and master cricket player. In America everyone mispronounces his name and struggles with his accent and no one cares how smart he is. He wants to be a part of the popular crowd, but he can’t seem to break in.
Joe is exceptionally tall for his age, struggles with Auditory Processing Disorder and is constantly bullied by the other kids in the class. His two closest friends have just moved away and he is also afraid that his new teacher won’t understand that he isn’t stupid. The only subject that he likes is lunch, although now that his mother is working as the lunch-room monitor, even that has lost its appeal. People thing that Joe is slow and that he doesn’t hear what is being said, but in reality, he hears and notices everything, he just sometimes struggles with what to focus on.
The antagonist of the story is Dillon Samreen. Dillion is an American-born Indian, a kleptomaniac, and the class bully. Ravi believes that they will be fast friends since they share the common Indian background. Little does he realize that Dillion is constantly making fun of him, stealing his things, and even trips him in class one day. Joe knows that Dillion is nothing but a bully and simply tries to stay out of his way.
As the week progresses, they go through typical experiences in school. You can feel Ravi’s frustration when he tries to show that he is intelligent and capable yet fails simply because things are done differently in America than they are in India. You come to appreciate how observant Joe is and how well he understands people.
Both boys also deal with issues in their family life. Ravi’s family is unsure of American ways of doing things and are also vegetarian. In addition to his parents, Ravi’s grandparents have also moved with them and so generational differences play in. Joe’s mother recently lost her job and wound up taking a job as the lunch room monitor at Joe’s school. Joe’s father is often on the road working as a truck driver. Both boys struggle to have their families understand how difficult school can be and the social difficulties that they both face.
Each day of the week is separated into its own section and titled by whatever food is being served in the cafeteria. This emphasizes the importance of food in all cultures and highlights how different Ravi’s family is from those around him. Food has always been an important way to understand different cultures, but in American schools, it has also been a way to ridicule those who bring items that are seen as “different.” Ravi avoids eating hot lunch and brings foods that are foreign to those around him.
But even with all of the differences, by the end of the book both boy learns to stand on his own two feet and each manage to show the other that they are not alone. They each manage to stand up to Dillion Samreen in their own way and we are left to feel that a new friendship is blossoming.
I thought that this was a marvelous way to show that we never really know what is going on in someone’s head and that the person you least suspect to be your friend might just be your best ally. Ravi even realizes that he is getting a taste of his own medicine when the popular boys won’t include him as that is how he treated others when he was in India. Joe’s character is incredibly endearing once he manages to get past his fears. When both boys manage to believe in themselves, they truly shine.
I purchased this book on my own, but Scholastic is a Platinum Sponsor of this year’s Multicultural Children’s Book Day and this book deserves some love.
Multicultural Children’s Book Day 2017 (1/27/17) is in its fourth year and was founded by Valarie Budayr from Jump Into A Book and Mia Wenjen from PragmaticMom. Our mission is to raise awareness of the ongoing need to include kids’ books that celebrate diversity in home and school bookshelves while also working diligently to get more of these types of books into the hands of young readers, parents and educators.
Despite census data that shows 37% of the US population consists of people of color, only 10% of children’s books published have diversity content. Using the Multicultural Children’s Book Day holiday, the MCBD Team is on a mission to change all of that.
Current Sponsors: MCBD 2017 is honored to have some amazing Sponsors on board. Platinum Sponsors include Scholastic, Barefoot Books and Broccoli. Other Medallion Level Sponsors include heavy-hitters like Author Carole P. Roman, Audrey Press, Candlewick Press, Fathers Incorporated, KidLitTV, Capstone Young Readers, ChildsPlayUsa, Author Gayle Swift, Wisdom Tales Press, Lee& Low Books, The Pack-n-Go Girls, Live Oak Media, Author Charlotte Riggle, Chronicle Books and Pomelo Books
Author Sponsor include: Karen Leggett Abouraya, Veronica Appleton, Susan Bernardo, Kathleen Burkinshaw, Delores Connors, Maria Dismondy, D.G. Driver, Geoff Griffin, Savannah Hendricks, Stephen Hodges, Carmen Bernier-Grand,Vahid Imani, Gwen Jackson, Hena, Kahn, David Kelly, Mariana Llanos, Natasha Moulton-Levy, Teddy O’Malley, Stacy McAnulty, Cerece Murphy, Miranda Paul, Annette Pimentel, Greg Ransom, Sandra Richards, Elsa Takaoka, Graciela Tiscareño-Sato, Sarah Stevenson, Monica Mathis-Stowe SmartChoiceNation, Andrea Y. Wang
We’d like to also give a shout-out to MCBD’s impressive CoHost Team who not only hosts the book review link-up on celebration day, but who also works tirelessly to spread the word of this event. View our CoHosts HERE.
MCBD Links to remember:
MCBD site: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/
Free Multicultural Books for Teachers: http://bit.ly/1kGZrta
Free Kindness Classroom Kit for Homeschoolers, Organizations, Librarians and Educators: http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/teachers-classroom-kindness-kit/
Free Diversity Book Lists and Activities for Teachers and Parents: http://bit.ly/1sZ5s8i
Hashtag: Don’t forget to connect with us on social media and be sure and look for/use their official hashtag #ReadYourWorld.
Wow! I like the many themes (cultural differences, moving, new kid, different abilities and bullying etc) in this middle grade novel. Your hunch about purchasing this book was a good one!
This sounds like an amazing book! I want to read it now after your review. Thanks so much for sharing at the MCBD linky and for all your support of Multicultural Children’s Book Day!