Kid reviews for Count Me In

I'm reading this book for school and it's pretty random. I get the message, and that's great. But, the events of this story don't flow very nicely. It doesn't make sense how the person who hurts Papa suddenly comes out of a car randomly while they were just living their lives. Then the bad guy just... dies?? It doesn't make sense to me. It's kind of abrupt and sudden, if you know what I mean.

Imagine being in a situation where someone that you know is getting injured because of their race or culture. What would you do? Count me in is written by Varsha Bajaj and was published on August 27, 2019. The two main characters are Carinna and Matt. These two both go to the same school and they are also Neighbors. One thing that is interesting about the book is each chapter is a different perspective that alternates between them. In the beginning they are not friends at all Because Matt was in the group that was being mean to Karina. Karina's family is of Indian descent and she faces discriminatory comments and actions. Throughout the story Karina and Matt started to become better friends. When Karina's grandfather moved in, he tutored Matt in math, which made Karina and Matt better friends. One traumatic thing that happened to Karina and Matt together was Karina's grandfather getting hurt by a man walking down the street. This man did it because Karina's grandfather was not the same race as him. Karina took a photo of the incident and posted it which made everyone know what happened.The photo brought people to know that there is racism happening around our world today. Something I liked about it was the different perspectives of Karina and Matt. I got to see the event through two different people's perspectives. I feel like a big part of the message was that if we are all exactly the same, no matter what we should all be treated equally and part of the community. Something I would critique is to add a couple more people's perspectives to the incidents that happened. I would recommend this for people who are 13 and up because it deals with pretty harsh issues. I think people who like to read about real issues that we should look out for and change would like this. I would give it a 4/5 because I feel like it can be harsh and I think you have to understand the feeling to know what's happening in the book

This book is great because it's about a girl's grandfather coming to live with them. The girl is happy, but also thinks to herself "will people make fun of his accent ?" Her grandfather is brown-skinned, just like her, and one day while she is walking home with her grandfather and her friend, a white man drives up and insults her grandfather and pushes him down, hurting him badly. The girl is angry about this, so writes about it and posts it on social media. Mostly everyone at her school are super supportive, and create a tree memorial for the grandfather, and he sees it when he comes back from the hospital. This is such a moving book, and I recommend it to kids 10 and up.

I think that this book is so amazing!!!!! I'm 17 and his book is better than any other book ever.