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Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea I first encountered this book in a few classrooms as I was substitute teaching. It just so happened that every time I was asked to read this book for the class read-aloud time, they were on the February segment of the story, which is when the inciting event happens. My interest was piqued, and when I finally came across a nice copy of this book for $2 at a secondhand book store, I took the opportunity to read it. Because of Mr. Terupt is a drama about one fifth-grade class and their teacher, Mr. Terupt, who happens to be starting his first year of teaching. Right away, the class realizes that their "rookie teacher" has a very different manner and strategy than every other teacher they've ever had. As a result of this, Mr. Terupt begins to gradually soften his students' hearts, both towards school as a whole and towards one another as classmates. Then a tragic accident takes Mr. Terupt away from his students, testing their resilience and the salience of the social-emotional lessons he had been directly and indirectly teaching them. My favorite aspects of this book are the characters and their interactions with one another. They are all so real and authentic; each of the seven students the book focuses on reminds me of my own students and the interactions I field every day as a substitute teacher. Mr. Terupt is a young teacher who displays a noteworthy patience and generosity for handling his students' day-to-day shenanigans. The parents of the children also play a role within the story; they feel fairly realistic, as well, though without the same level of nuance as the students have. The book progresses not in traditional chapters but in month-titled segments (we could call them acts, perhaps) and by the seven students' first-person perspectives. The first act begins with "September" and progresses through "June." Within each act, the "chapters" are titled according to the student whose perspective we're focused on for that moment. The "chapters" are between one and four pages long, so one can easily read as much or as little as one desires. I tended to read until I got to a student whose perspective I had already read for that sitting and would stop there until the next time I read. I had never read a book that was arranged this way before, so the style of the book felt as unconventional to me as Mr. Terupt's classroom management style felt to his students and colleagues. Each act tended to focus on one particular class project and subsequent drama, so the book still felt well organized and thought-out. The writing and storytelling of this book are good. Each character narrates with their own personality and dialect, and the storytelling is very straightforward and matter-of-fact, without any description beyond what is strictly necessary for the moment at hand. Although I enjoy a little more in the way of description and scene-setting, the minimalism feels right for this story and the way it is told. Because of Mr. Terupt features a handful of real-world social issues and challenges with an appropriate level of compassion and sensitivity, for the most part. The depiction of special education was the one that impressed me the most, with how realistically and lovingly the author wrote these characters and how they interacted with the main cast. The biggest weakness of this book is its depiction of "religious people," and I say that because of the lack of nuance with which the book treats such people. One of the fifth-grade students, Danielle, comes from a multi-generational home on the family farm. Danielle’s grandmother is the adult in Danielle’s life that the book features the most prominently, and she is described as being “very religious.” She is also very judgmental toward Anna, Danielle’s friend and classmate, whose mother had become pregnant with her as a teenager. Although Danielle’s grandmother does, as the book progresses, surprise her granddaughter by saying a nice prayer for Anna and her mother, there isn’t much that I would consider character development there. It feels like a scene that was written to try and provide the nuance that is lacking throughout the book, and that attempt at nuance wasn’t enough to balance out the overall negative light cast on “religious people” as a group. Because this book actively seeks to comment on a number of social issues and because every other issue is treated with fairness, sensitivity, and compassion, I was disappointed to see so little done to communicate to the reader that “religious people” are just like every other group of people – there are those who live by their religion’s good values and those who provide a very poor, even destructive example. The book comes too close to promoting the idea that “religious people” are just a group of judgmental knot-heads who cause more problems than they solve. Given that this book is commonly read to school children as-is, with little to no further commentary, I consider this to be a socially irresponsible feature, as children will tend to pick up on the negative messaging about religion and internalize it, thereby encouraging that element of social division. More thought should have gone into how the author was featuring religion and the people who believe and participate in one. All in all, Because of Mr. Terupt is a well-put-together book that tells an emotionally compelling story and navigates (most) social challenges with appropriate care. I think this book is best read to students with a little healthy discussion to ensure they have time to absorb the many themes it touches on, such as understanding; compassion; self-control; and kindness, to name a few. As a grown-up reader, if you’re ready to read a drama that is as heartwarming as it is heartwrenching, and if you enjoy realistically flawed characters, this is a book you could potentially enjoy. |
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