Save Me a Seat

By: Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan

Libby audiobook 4 hours

Read by: Vikas Adam and Josh Hurley

Published: 2017

Genre: Juvenile realistic fiction

 

The protagonists Ravi and Joe are fifth graders. Ravi ("Rah-VEE") is newly arrived from India and used to being one of the popular kids. Joe is big, blond, and has APD (auditory processing disorder). It seemed to me that he was a bit autistic. A third child, Dylan Samreen is a bully. Ravi initially admires him and wants to be his friend even though he's an ABCD (American-born Confused Desi - an Indian who's more American). 

 

The vocal work for each character was wonderful. I didn't enjoy this book as much as I typically would have . . . though there were many good qualities about it. The relationships between ten-year-old boys and their parents was interesting. The fact that they are fifth graders and Ravi is not yet interested in girls made me chuckle. (As did the fact that an 11:30am lunch was ridiculously early to Ravi.)

 

Dylan being a bully was hard for me to listen to . . . even though Mr. Barnes had told Joe in fourth grade that "the world is full of Dylan Samreens," (true), it seems that Dylan's treatment of other students was never really addressed. Did the adults in that school not see and understand what was happening? When he yanked out Joe's earbud and crushed it underfoot . . . Joe didn't report him. His calling Joe "Puddy Tat," "Pud," and other names (and other students picking up the nicknames) just because his last name was Sylvester.

 

Honestly, Dylan's awfulness was what I noted the most about this book. Report him! Challenge him! Save evidence! Record incidents! I struggled with his horrible behavior continuing (and the fact that he'd been treating Joe this way since kindergarten . . . heart breaking.)

 

When Ravi finally realized who Dylan really was AND that he himself had been the Dylan of his school in India . . . that was a nice turning point. The observation by Joe that he and Ravi were the zebras and Dylan was the crocodile was nice.

 

The school *would* have contacted Ravi's parents about the injury he got in Phy Ed. If you go to the school nurse with a painful bruise (whether it was an accident or Dylan's abuse), they would have contacted home.

 

I did NOT like how Ravi's grandma kept trashing her daughter-in-law! Her cooking, her parenting, her decisions . . . I get that there's a cultural element here, but it was awful and maybe didn't make a lot of sense in a book for elementary aged children.

 

There was a glossary at the end of the book. Of course, most of the Indian terms were helpful for me to hear (who knew that coriander is dried cilantro? Not me!). But I liked that there was also a glossary of Joe's terms.